Peak Pollen

Seasonal allergies hit Richmond hard; a look at the stats behind the suffering

by

Health

The following is an extended version of the article that appears in our April 2026 issue.

Amid a peaceful lawn, a factory stands hidden in plain sight. Walk 500 feet from the Robins Nature Center on Maymont’s grounds, and you’ve arrived; at 82 feet tall with a canopy of 108 feet, it’s hard to miss. Children might be climbing it, couples might be sitting on benches at its base, but its quiet nature belies its power.  

It’s an oak tree, specifically a native Darlington oak, roughly 200 years old and stretching its hulking limbs over a grassy patch of the park. This is the largest Darlington oak in the country and — after dropping its banana-shaped leaves in the fall and resting bare during the winter — it begins budding new growth in the spring, firing up a manufacturing process that brings new meaning to the phrase “power plant.”

“[Oaks] are prolific pollen producers,” says Michael Webb, urban forester for the city of Richmond. While other tree pollen types such as pine are a major culprit for the season’s persistent pale-yellow dusting, allergists say, oak pollen can cause some of the most severe reactions. A single oak tree like the Darlington oak can, over the course of one spring season, release more than a billion grains of yellow, slightly sticky pollen — light enough to float in the air for hundreds of miles and small enough to enter human airways and trigger an allergic reaction. 

Count all the oaks in Richmond — “tons,” Webb estimates — pair those with the dozens of common tree species in the area that are equally significant pollinators (including ash, elm, birch and pine), add other allergy-causing flora such as ragweed, and you get a uniquely Richmond level of pollen that allergists, researchers and foresters alike seek to manage. 

Seasonal Struggles 

Richmond’s challenging allergy environment has drawn national attention. The Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America, a nonprofit patient advocacy organization, ranked Richmond 14th in its 2026 report on “allergy capitals” last month; the city has also placed among the top 10 in five of the last six years. 

Three elements factor into the annual rankings, according to AAFA Research Director Hannah Jaffee: daily measures of tree, grass and weed pollen; over-the-counter allergy medication sales; and the availability of allergists in the region. “Allergy capitals” are cities with plenty of pollen, high medication usage and fewer allergists than needed. 

“These factors can influence each other, but they can also sometimes mitigate each other,” Jaffee says. “So, you might have very high pollen, but if you have a wide variety of allergists in the area, you might be able to help mitigate some of those allergy symptoms.” 

Compared to other cities studied by the AAFA, allergists aren’t in short supply in Richmond: The region has 1 allergist for every 10,000 allergy patients, according to data from Komodo Health; comparatively, other cities have 1 allergist per 20,000 patients. Likewise, over-the-counter medication sales are lower here than the list-wide average. That means our environmental conditions outweigh our solutions. 

“The second week of April here in Richmond tends to be really severe,” says Dr. Kelley von Elten, an allergist and Virginia native. “That’s when oak, a major allergen, is really peaking; that’s when you see the yellow flying around.”

Pollen grains from common trees in the region can be identified under a microscope by their unique shapes. (click to expand)

At her West End practice, RVA Allergy, von Elten treats adults and children suffering from allergies of all origins, including environmental factors, foods and animals. April is a “super busy season,” she says, adding that allergies from other sources, including dust mites and mold, can persist year-round for many adults.  

Seasonal allergies, which affect about 1 in 4 adults in the U.S., are also known as hay fever and are caused by a chain reaction from triggers such as pollen on the skin or in the respiratory or gastrointestinal tracts.

“When we check for allergies, we’re measuring the allergic antibody that people have, [immunoglobulin],” von Elten says. When confronted with allergens, immunoglobulin kicks off an immune system reaction to fight back. “Then the allergy mediators, like histamine, are released from the mast cells. That’s what gives you allergic reactions, where you get swelling and itching and those types of symptoms.” 

Not all allergy cases share the same symptoms, explains Dr. William Hark, an allergist with Richmond Allergy & Asthma Specialists in Innsbrook. “Everybody’s a little bit different. People might have a runny nose; stuffy nose; sneezing; or itchy, watery eyes, but some people will have one more than the other,” he says. “For some people, allergies can cause fatigue or a sort of fogginess. It can make their asthma worse, with persistent coughing and wheezing. ... It can be hard to even know what [illness] you have.” 

In some cases, these reactions can lead to more severe conditions, including asthma attacks and other respiratory problems, or even death. “It is something that, if it’s not maintained properly and you don’t take your medicine and know your triggers, it can actually kill you still; people are always surprised to hear that,” says Dr. Rajiv Malhotra, a pulmonologist and chief medical officer for Chippenham Hospital in Chesterfield County. While hospitalization and morbidity rates for allergy patients are low, he says, people with preexisting asthma diagnoses or comorbidities that impact lung function are at greater risk of more serious consequences from long-term allergies.

“You could argue that if you have moderate to severe asthma, and you don’t do a good job with your allergies in terms of management and avoidance, that you put yourself at risk of asthma exacerbation and repeated exacerbation can lead to decrease in lung function over time,” Malhotra says.

For environmental allergies, over-the-counter antihistamines are the most common first step on a treatment path. “[Antihistamines] don’t necessarily stop the chemical reaction that happens with allergies, but they’re blocking the receptor that is affected by the histamine so that you hopefully don’t experience the symptoms,” von Elten says. Avoidance measures, including managing time spent outdoors during heavy pollen days and more frequent cleaning around the house, can also play a role in managing seasonal allergies. 

When drugs such as Benadryl or Allegra fall short, allergists recommend an investigation to learn just what they’re fighting before settling on how to fight it. This usually starts with an allergy panel. “To test, we make little pricks on the back with extracts of different allergens,” Hark explains. “You get a little red bump, like a mosquito bite, and the presence and the size of the bump, or wheal, as we call it, gives you an idea of how allergic that person is to things like dust and mold, pollens, [and] dogs and cats, and then that helps us decide how to recommend environmental control and treatment.” 

Follow-up treatments can include a form of immunotherapy that involves slowly dosing a patient with allergens — usually administered via injections or oral drops — to build a tolerance and help the immune system reduce its reactions. 

Even after decades in Richmond, Hark still sees the region’s onslaught of allergens as acutely severe. “I have a lot of patients who said they’re fine, then they moved to Richmond and got sick,” he says. “Richmond is just a terrible place for allergies.”

Dusty Days Ahead 

“After moving to Richmond, I had the first sinus infection of my entire life,” says Stephanie Spera, a professor of geography, environment and sustainability at the University of Richmond. Her research centers on environmental issues in natural and human landscapes, with a recent focus on the Richmond region’s climate resilience. 

Here in the mid-Atlantic, “we have all the vegetation,” Spera says, including a mix of northern and southern trees, flowering perennials, wild grasses, and weeds. “We’re in this place with a long enough growing season to have these pollinating plants that are going off all the time, so we truly are at this really interesting nexus of landscape geography.” 

Richmond’s high diversity of plant life and warmer, humid climate contributes to the length of our pollen season, Spera notes, and is why southeastern states tend to be the most challenging destinations for people with allergies.

The whole point of pollen is to spread everywhere and to help [plants] procreate. Spring is generally the very windy season, so we’re getting pollen blowing from here and elsewhere, and more of it, too.

—Stephanie Spera

And things are getting worse. As climate change has affected weather patterns, it has also led to different plant behavior in all seasons, allowing more plants to bloom earlier and later. According to data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Richmond’s growing season (typically overlapping with the spring season) has extended by 31 days since 1970 due to changes in the climate. That also lengthens the pollen season in Richmond. 

“Plants respond to two things,” Spera says. “They respond to light and temperature as a way to know when to bloom and when to shut down.” In the past, when growing seasons were shorter and weather trends were more consistent, “You used to see something where pollen was just going off for an awful week because [everything] was synchronized. Now, because you have differences in temperature and difference in light, ... you have plants flowering for a much longer amount of time in the spring, and then the growing season is even later in the fall.” 

But changes in the region aren’t the only factor suggesting pollen season will get worse. A longer growing season elsewhere also means more spores in Richmond. “Trees are really smart, because pollen is really light. The whole point of pollen is to spread everywhere and to help [plants] procreate,” Spera says. “Spring is generally the very windy season, so we’re getting pollen blowing from here and elsewhere, and more of it, too.”

Counted On 

To measure just how much pollen comes our way, the AAFA relies on pollen data collected from AI-powered sensors set up in cities across the U.S., part of a growing push for automation in field research. The American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology, however, relies on an old-fashioned method: Certified scientists and medical professionals at 84 stations across the U.S. take counts by hand and use them to build the academy’s pollen counting effort, the National Allergy Bureau. 

For 36 years, Richmond had its own model for manual counts. At Allergy Partners of Richmond, staffer Becky Collie counted pollen by eye and logged the information by hand until her retirement in 2024. Her regular pollen samples, taken during the fall and spring from a pollen trap on the roof of the practice’s building within Henrico Doctors’ Hospital, earned her the nickname “The Pollen Lady.” Jessica Hess may soon take up the mantle. 

Hess is a certified pediatric nurse practitioner and part of the allergy and immunology department within the Children’s Hospital of Richmond at VCU. Her first exposure to allergies in a clinical setting came while working in inpatient care at St. Mary’s Hospital, where she saw an “astronomical” number of children treated for allergy-related asthma.  

“I was seeing so much of it that I wanted to figure out why there was so much of this in Richmond,” Hess says. In 2024, VCU Health received a grant from the National Allergy Bureau to install a spore trap on its campus, and Hess leapt at the chance to crunch the numbers. 

“It’s all volunteerism. ... Most of the people who are reporting [pollen counts] just really believe that this is important, and that’s why they do it,” she says. 

In early 2025, VCU Health set up a Burkhart spore trap, a green collection vessel containing a seven-day supply of capture tape, on the roof of the Adult Outpatient Pavilion downtown. Once a week, Hess collects the tape, transfers each day’s pollen to a glass slide and counts granules under a microscope. “The process can be quick, especially if there’s not a lot of pollen in the air. ... It could take me only an hour for a whole week of pollen, if it’s really low,” she says. “During peak season, it could take me an hour just to look at one slide.” 

In its first year, the sampler helped Hess contribute reports to the bureau that play a role in studies on local, regional and nationwide allergy trends. Along with the ability to identify which pollen types are affecting Richmond daily, the practical benefits extend to how the allergy team at the hospital delivers care. 

“When you get patients who come through your clinic, you have that real-life live data to say [about pollen], ‘It’s here, it’s here now, and you need to start,’ and that gives them the push to start their medicine even earlier,” Hess says. “Our future goal is to have a pollen calendar that’s local to Richmond, and we need three to five years of data to formulate our specific pollen timeline. ... For a lot of our severe patients, it’s helpful to know when things are happening and what’s changing.”

Branching Out 

In Richmond, quelling springtime pollen storms with ecological means could require something close to defying nature. 

Michael Webb, a Virginia native, joined the city in 2023 as its first urban forester, a growing profession as municipal governments nationwide identify the need for scientists to play a role in cities’ management of their environmental resources. “It’s a new trend in terms of understanding the benefits of trees as a tool for climate change and just in general, for the well-being of citizens in the city,” he says. “Richmond’s got a ton of trees in the public right of way. ... For that magnitude, there needs to be a long-term approach.” 

Webb comes to the job at a perilous time for the city’s tree canopy. Last year, the Conservation Innovation Center at the nonprofit Chesapeake Conservancy estimated that, between 2014 and 2021, Richmond lost 10% of its tree cover on developed land to threats such as deforestation and tree death. Those 199 acres of trees removed pollution from the air, lowered temperatures citywide and reduced stormwater runoff, among other benefits.

The trees that provide us the biggest benefits ... are typically the ones that produce the most pollen. ... The benefits of an urban tree far outweigh the considerations of pollen.

—Michael Webb, urban forester

Since much of that loss happened on private land, the city must fight harder to encourage canopy recovery where it can: in public parks and other green spaces. It’s a focus of the Richmond Tree Plan, a four-year project launched last year that uses citywide lidar (laser) scans to get an updated tree inventory. “We will understand, what’s our tree canopy to date? Where do we need trees, and how do we get trees in those areas? How do we mitigate heat islands?” Webb says. “We’re drafting a plan that reflects modern policy for forest management.”

Managing pollen producers has also gained traction with the public. In recent decades, city residents and environmentalists have argued against planting male trees in urban areas (once the recommendation of the U.S. Department of Agriculture) and instead adding more female trees. Where female organs rely on fruit and flower production to repopulate, male trees rely in part on wind-driven pollen transfers that generate and spread more pollen. 

Why not replace our male trees with female ones, then? Webb says he hears that question a lot. “There’s not that many species that have a [separate] male and a female tree,” he says. “It’s not something that we could go to a nursery and say, ‘Can you give us all the female trees so that we can reduce the pollen load?’” In recent years, experts have sought to dispel the misconception that introducing exclusively male trees could reduce pollen in urban environments.  

Given the limited options, urban foresters, including Webb, look at pollen as a disservice trees provide, balanced against the benefits of rebuilding Richmond’s treescape. “With every tree we plant, we’re looking at how this benefits the whole community,” he says. “The trees that provide us the biggest benefits — the shade, the stormwater [mitigation], those big ecosystem services — are typically the ones that produce the most pollen. ... The benefits of an urban tree far outweigh the considerations of pollen.” 

There’s a chance that restoring the tree canopy could improve the city’s pollen situation. Combatting climate change and reducing urban heat islands could lower the likelihood of wind-pollinating trees blooming earlier, shortening the spring pollen season. 

As Webb and his team complete their master tree plan, he says opportunities for reducing the pollen load in the city and other positives could reveal themselves. For now, medical professionals point to allergy management and preparedness as the best ways to get through the season. 

“As the climate is changing, the pollen is changing; it’s here for longer and becoming more allergenic,” Hess says. “There’s only so much we can control, so ultimately controlling your symptoms and having good prevention measures is imperative.”

By the Numbers

BILLIONS

High estimate for granules of pollen released from a single mature oak tree during peak pollen season.

NO. 14

Richmond’s position on the 2026 Allergy Capitals Report from the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America. 

78,324

Number of trees managed by the city’s urban forestry department, estimated in 2015. The most common city-owned tree species is the crepe myrtle.

+31

Total days of freeze-free weather that have been added to the spring between 1970 and 2024 in Richmond, extending the pollen season.

Stop the Sneeze

Experts offer their tips for combatting pollen 

Start taking over-the-counter antihistamines as early as Valentine’s Day. Not only can pollen start spreading in the region as early as mid-February, but your body can better combat seasonal allergies with a head start. —Jessica Hess, NP

After doing anything outdoors during the height of pollen season, take a shower — and wash your pets, too. —Dr. William Hark

Even people without seasonal allergies can feel the sting; nonallergenic rhinitis is the irritation of nasal passages from pollen, and can look and feel just like seasonal allergies. Treatments can include nasal sprays and antihistamines. —Dr. Kelley von Elten