Itchy throat, watery eyes and severe coughing, o my! If you have noticed your allergies are more heightened this year than normal, blame our agriculture. Although not a new story, on the news recently, they spoke about Botanical Sexism and its effects on allergies and on children who will develop asthma due to this claim.

Botanical sexism is favoring male trees over female trees due to female trees producing seeds and fruit that litter the streets and make a mess.

If we look at the natural order of nature, we need a balance of male and female trees because they both serve a purpose. The male trees produce pollen and when the female trees receive the pollen from the air or bees, they can produce seeds and flowers. But what has happened since 1949 is that street sweepers feel female trees and their seedlings make too much of a mess, so they decided to only plant male trees in urban areas for curb appeal. Now, when the trees produce pollen, no female trees are waiting to collect it, so it stays in the air waiting to pollute our senses.

Now, without getting too technical, we have to understand what kind of trees are planted. There are two types of trees: Monoecious, which have both male and female reproductive parts, and dioecious, which has either male or female parts. In most urban areas, monoecious trees are planted. Although these trees don’t produce seeds and fruit, they can produce flowers. If we are ok with flowers littering the streets, what’s wrong with a few seeds and fruit as well? The argument doesn’t make sense. If you’ve ever walked down an urban tree-lined street, you would know why. Flowers are coating the sidewalk everywhere!

Are there other factors to consider in regards to allergies? Yes. Air pollution and climate change are two big ones. The exhaust from cars, exposure to indoor pollutants, lifestyle choices and temperature changes are all areas that increase the allergens in our lives. However, planting a mix of male and female trees can help lessen the impact of allergies on those suffering from them. By planting more female trees, there’s less pollen as they don’t produce it and the pollen from all the male trees now has somewhere to call home, reducing it in the air. Also, there is enough sexism in the world, we don’t need to litter nature with our skewed ideals surrounding what’s better for botany.

Trees have populated the earth longer than we have and this western world ideal and its consequences fall on the citizens to shoulder, as always. While other countries in Asia like China and the Phillipines encourage citizens to scatter fruit seeds in an initiative to grown more trees, here we are trying to lessen the seed production. So if less female trees means less seeds, more pollen, more allergies and more cases of asthma, this now less about trees and just another reason why more Americans will get sicker every year. Thanks again America.