This reply was written in response to a recent Weekly Tip item:
Thanks for citing my father-in-law Roger Wodehouse’ 1935 work Pollen Grains (Asthma Allergies Children, page 219). “There is another important point to make about pollen: the nectar producing flowers that are pretty or fragrant attract insects, bats, or birds to inadvertently convey their sticky pollen to other flowers while feeding on their nectar. The inconspicuous flowers of grasses, trees, and ragweed rely on the wind or gravity to move their pollen to female flowers. They produce large quantities of pollen grains of small size, carried by the air to other plants and your nose. It is not the showy yellow goldenrod you can see but rather the unattractive green ragweed you overlook that is making you miserable. That is not to say that if you plunge your face into a peony you won’t sneeze, but you can learn to admire pretty flowers from a distance and not condemn them as allergens.”
–AW