Allergies to plants have different symptoms depending on the kinds of irritation that cause them. Eating the allergenic fruit of a plant will cause digestive upset, while touching an allergenic plant, such as poison ivy, will produce a skin rash. More commonly, inhaling reproductive pollen or the spores of fungi growing on plants creates nasal symptoms. People with hay fever get seasonal allergy symptoms from inhaling plant pollens and potentially year-round health effects from molds.
Types
Food allergies, allergic contact dermatitis and seasonal and perennial allergic rhinitis can all result from contact with certain plants to which individuals have sensitivities. According to the Cleveland Clinic, the majority of seasonal rhinitis, or hay fever, plant allergies involve sensitivities to weed, tree and grass pollens and leaf molds, rather than to flowering plants. Additionally, allergenic molds can grow on plants to which people do not have allergic sensitivities, such as houseplants, at any time of year.
Identification
The University of Maryland Medical Center notes that patients can begin to diagnose their plant allergies by which body parts develop symptoms. Hay fever complaints such as runny nose and sneezing can arise anytime after the patient has inhaled microscopic plant or fungal allergens. Signs of a plant-based food allergy may take up to two hours to appear, while skin allergy symptoms of allergic contact dermatitis can be delayed for two days. Doctors can perform skin or blood tests to make positive identifications.
Time Frame
Patients will suffer regular plant allergies to grasses in summer, trees in spring and weeds in the fall. Mold allergies can affect people outdoors through the first frost and indoors year round. Patients can experience reactions from food allergies at any time, although oral allergy symptoms of mouth itching and swelling may be limited to a certain pollination season. For instance, patients may get mouth symptoms from eating tomatoes only in the summer, because the tomatoes' protein structure is similar to that of grass pollens.
Effects
All plant allergies cause sensations of itching in the affected body parts, such as the mouth, nose or hands. Allergic reactions to pollen and fungi cause respiratory problems, including asthma attacks in patients who also have asthma. Eating allergenic fruits can cause nasal symptoms, diarrhea and vomiting as well as anaphylaxis, a serious heart and lung complication.
Prevention/Solution
The Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America points out that because allergies can't be cured, patients must work at preventing and treating hay fever and contact allergy symptoms. Nasal and topical corticosteroids offer effective protection and relief, the University of Maryland Medical Center reports. Food allergens, however, must simply be avoided to prevent anaphylactic reactions, because emergency epinephrine treatments may come too late.
