Face of our "invisible" enemy

Dear Dad and those who suffer from hay fever...

As you all know, hay fever is caused by the body immune system reacting to the pollen. Chemicals such as histamine is released when there's contact with pollen and this causes red eyes and blocked nose. Recently a Swiss artistic scientist named Martin Oeggerli used a scanning electron microscope (SEM.. haven't heard about it since the BIOL111 in HSFY back in 2003) to capture images of pollen grains. To me, they are beautiful, but yet looks horribly "lethal".

Upto almost the half of Kiwis suffer from hay fever. Thankfully my body isn't "sensitive" enough to recognise pollen and react to it... haha. On the other hand, somebody who shall not be named, gets hay fever even if he stays at home all the time during the season. Hmmm hmmm. 

Here are the invisible enemies behind the beauty...

Willow Flower 

A grain of willow pollen wedged between petals

  

Birch Trees - known to be one of the most infamous allergenic plants. Apparently in average about 15-20% of hay fever sufferers are sensitive to it. Birth trees release their pollen between September and November, hence the worst symptoms around October

  

Mallow flowers

Its spines help it cling to birds' feathers

Geranium

Grains of pollen on a geranium stigma

Lily

Acanthus

Pistia (Water cabbage)

Pine trees

Forget-me-not. This flower has one of the smallest known grains of pollen; just five one-thousandths of a millimetre in diameter - hard to imagine! Flowers look gorgeous!

A higher magnification of forget-me-not pollen on a petal