City’s shedding plane trees continue to irritate long after pollen season

Spring and hay fever season may be over, but Melbourne’s hay fever sufferers are still experiencing seasonal irritations — and these thousands of trees are to blame.

Plane trees are still causing irritations. Picture: Jay Town

Melbourne’s thousands of plane trees are still causing irritations to allergy sufferers, even though hay fever season has passed for another year.

Fine hairs, known as trichomes, are shedding from the underside of the leaves, causing eye and throat irritations well after the flowering of the trees in spring.

The alert comes as the inner-city’s ageing plane tree population is falling and being replaced by natives such as lemon-scented gums.

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Plane trees on Flinders St had to be removed. Picture: Jay Town

This Flinders St plane tree is now gone. Picture: Jay Town

A total of 1000 trees have been removed in the past six years, leaving 5787 in place.

The council tried unsuccessfully to lessen the allergy impact of the London planes by injecting plant hormones in 2013.

The trees have been part of central Melbourne’s streetscapes since the 19th century.

The city’s environment chairwoman, Cr Cathy Oke, said while some people may experience physical irritation from plane tree trichomes, the most common cause of hay fever was from grass pollen.

“The shedding of plane tree trichomes occurs during the same period that grass pollen levels are highest in Melbourne and it is common for sufferers of hay fever to associate their symptoms with the trichomes,’’ Cr Oke said.

London plane trees are part of the Melbourne cityscape.

The plane trees are resilient on Melbourne’s crowded and busy streets.

The plane trees’ large canopy provides significant shade and cooling in the city, Ms Oke said.

Planes have been replaced on Flinders St between Federation Square and Wellington Parade South, with lemon-scented gums, and along the Lygon St median strip in Carlton, where European hackberry trees have been planted.

Melbourne University Biosciences Associate Professor and Melbourne Pollen Count co-ordinator Ed Newbigin said trichomes were the most likely cause of eye and throat irritation at this time of year.

“The seed pods also drop to the ground and fly around. A lot of street traders complain and they are quite messy. And they have little hairs on them as well but they can get into people’s eyes,’’ he said.

This year’s hay fever season had been mild because low rainfall meant less grass growing, especially in the west of the state, Assoc Prof Newbigin said.

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