See 13 trees that can make you miserable this year.

It's spring, and trees are spreading the love. Or rather, they're spreading their reproductive material around - far and wide.

Pollen, whose main function is to carry the sperms needed for plant propagation, is inescapable at this time of year. A single blooming pine or oak can produce as much as 10 billion pollen grains in a period of a few days.

On a typical Texas spring day, the estimated pollen count exceeds 500 pollen grains per cubic meter of air, according to the Handbook of Texas Online. Even someone who stays inside and avoids exertion likely will inhale about 7,200 pollen grains in the course of a day. Outside physical activity can exponentially increase the amount inhaled.

Once inhaled, pollen ruptures on contact with moist nose and lung tissues, triggering an allergy sufferer's immune response, releasing histamines and other compounds into the blood as a defense.


What is the effect of this year's winter rains? Read the answer to that question and the rest of the story in Wednesday's Beaumont Enterprise.



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