[Flora, distribution of vegetation and pollen content of the air: significance for allergics]

Abstract

The wealth of the flora of a given region cannot be seen in its airborne pollen list. Actually, for some plants there is a low probability that their pollens are recorded in the pollen counts (entomogamous plants, in particular). Moreover, the light microscopy reduces the possibilities of determination. In France, The Aerobiological Network of Surveillance (RNSA) retains 92 taxa at different levels (gender, family, group of families), and among them allergenic as well as non allergenic taxa. From the 130 families of the France flora, 63 are taken into account in the pollen studies, 57 taxa being determined at the gender level. The comparison between the surface occupied by the tree species in the French departments of Côte-d'Or and Saône-et-Loire, and the average airborne pollen concentrations showed that usually there is no correspondence between the abundance of a plant and the number of its pollen in the records. So the flora of a region does not give enough information allowing to know the taxonomic composition and the pollen quantities in the air, which is of particular importance for allergic people.