Plant Allergen Guide
Please select your area & month
Common allergy causing plants found throughout Queensland during March
Research conducted by the ASCIA shows that there are no currently known allergy causing plants in this region during this period.
Annual Blue/Winter Grass
An annual or short-lived perennial growing to 3cm but is frequently prostrate in tufts. It is a weed of lawns and nature strips. The leaves are light-green with blunted ends. The flowering head is a pyramidal in shape when mature with 3-4 spikelets towards the ends of the stem.
Australian Pine/She Oak
Slender trees 10-20m with grey green to dark green needle like foliage. The many species are indigenous, drought resistant and used extensively in landscaping. The male flowers surround a central spike in whorls and when about to pollinate the foliage appears brown.
Bahia Grass
Perennial tufted grass between 40cm and 1metre high with flat leaves. The flowers (spikelets) are attached to the main axis of the inflorescence by small pedicles and produce purple anthlers. Thre are 15 species of Paspalum in Australia, 10 of which have been introduced from the United States.
Bermuda/Couch grass
A perennial spreading mostly horizontal grass which sends off shoots at intervals. The leaves come off the stem alternately. The flowering head consists of 3-7 spikes which are often purple in colour. It is sown as a lawn grass but the runners are very vigorous and invade flowerbeds and are difficult to control.
Bottlebrush
Evergreen 6m with 3m spread. Trunk erect with a rough bark. Leaves light narrow needle like. Flowers in dense red spikes.
Canary Grass
Densely tufted. Erect 1.5m or taller the stems have a bulbous swelling at the base and the leaves are long and flat. The flowering head is cylindrical and dense. This grass is used to stabilise pastures and eroded areas and is a roadside volunteer.
Cocksfoot/Orchard Grass
Perennial grass. Erect 15cm-1.4m. Densely tufted with greyish-green flat leaves 10-45cm long that are rolled when in bud. The flowering heads consists of spikelets in dense one-sided clusters. A valuable pasture grass.
English Oak
Deciduous. 20-30m. Slow growing. Stout erect trunk with open crown to 30m. Shiny dark green lobed leaves. Flowers are pendulous catkins, and fruit is an acorn. A cold climate tree.
Johnson Grass
Erect. Stems slender up to 3m tall. The leaf blades have a prominent mid rib and are approximately 45cm long and there are hairs only at the edge of the sheath. The flowering head is usually a pyramidal shape and open and the spikelets are carried on short hairy pedicles. The spikelets have short feathery white hairs. Johnson Grass is a troublesome weed in irrigation areas and crops, particularly cultivated Sorghum.
Kentucky Blue/June Grass
Tufted annual or perennial grass often found in tussocks. Erect 10-90cm. The leaf blade is folded in bud and is approximately 5mm wide and has a blunt end. The flowering head is delicate, opens on maturity with 5-6 spikelets and has a purplish tinge. A valuable pasture and lawn grass particularly in colder areas.
London Plane Tree
Deciduous. 30m with spread of 10m. Trunk erect with grey peeling bark giving a mottled appearance. Leaves large green lobed. Male and female flowers in separate clusters with large reddish female flowers growing at shoot tip and yellow male flowers growing further back on old wood.
Mango Tree
An evergreen tree with a crown varying between 5 and 30 metres. Erect trunk with spreading branches. Leaves dark green, lanceolate with prominent veins. Flowers yellowish red with 5 petals. Fruit yellow to red ovoid drupe.
Murray Pine/ White Cypress Pine
Small to medium-sized trees but may reach 20m in height. The leaves are scale like in whorls. The flowers are unisexual with male catkins cylindrical and the female ones consisting of six scales arranged in two whorls consisting of six enlarged and hardened scales with singular columella at the base of the cone inside. The trunk is used in carpentry and house-building.
Olive Tree
Evergreen. 7m with 3m spread. Trunk erect and branching. Leaves dark green lanceolate shape with silvery under surface. White fragrant flowers and fruit grey drupes turning purple on ripening.
Paper-bark Tea Tree
Evergreen shrub or tree 10m. Papery bark. Leaves lanceolate"ñelliptical. White to cream bottlebrush-shaped flowers.
Parthenium weed
An erect annual herb growing to 1.5 metres consisting of many branched stems with pale green deeply divided leaves and terminal bunches of creamy white small flowers.
Patersons Curse/ Salvation Jane
Erect biennial weed 50-80cm with hairy leaves and stems which are large and oval in the basal rosette but becomes smaller and lanceolate on the stem. The flowers are trumpet shaped and deep purple. This weed is valued by beekeepers for the nectar but it smothers useful pastures and is declared noxious weed in several states.
Pellitory/Asthma Weed
This weed grows up to 60cm high and has a woody red hairy stem and hairy alternate leaves. Florets grow in the axils of leaves closely applied to the stem and are white to pink in colour. This is an urban weed colonising the lower North Shore of Sydney but spreading to inner-city areas. It has been reported in Melbourne, Adelaide, Fremantle.
Plantain
This weed grows up to 60cm high and has a woody red hairy stem and hairy alternate leaves. Florets grow in the axils of leaves closely applied to the stem and are white to pink in colour. This is an urban weed colonising the lower North Shore of Sydney but spreading to inner-city areas. It has been reported in Melbourne, Adelaide, Fremantle.
Ragweed
Annual erect herb with dark green divided leaves. Male flowers are borne on spikes above a cluster of female flowers. The male flowers have a greenish hood around yellow flowers and produce copious amounts of pollen.
Ryegrass
Erect appearance 1.2m. Stem has alternating spikelets attached around and directly to the stem. Each spikelet is closely applied to the stem but as it matures it becomes right angled to the stem. The leaves are shiny and hairless and the stems are smooth. Rye grass is sown as a pasture grass but it is also a volunteer on roadsides and nature strips. It may be in lawn seed mixtures.
Silver Birch
Deciduous. 12-18m. Graceful pendulous form. Leaves are smooth with wedge-shaped base. Catkins develop in late August, early September. Males 3-4cm long, females 1.2 - 2cm and breaking up in autumn and winter. The bark is white and thin horizontal lines and dark diamond shaped cracks. Grows well in colder areas.
Timothy Grass
Perennial up to 1.5m forming large clumps. The leaves are hairless and dense and about 6-9mm wide. The flowering head is spike-like and cylindrical 5-15cm long. It is sown as a pasture and hay grass in cooler areas.
Wild Oat
Tufted annual grass growing to 1.7m. It has tough broad leaves and the flower head has drooping loose open spikelets on long fine pedicles. Each spikelet has 3 florets which become golden with increasing age. The flower is enclosed by a bract which is a reduced leaf and the inner leaf has fine golden brown silky hairs.
Yorkshire Fog/Velvet Grass
Tufted soft perennial grass growing to about 50cm in height. Leaves flat with short hairs and the flowers dense panicles with colours ranging from white through pink to deep purple.