Allergy Information

Sycamore pollen is allergenic, but considered only of moderate importance on skin tests.

Genus Details

Sycamores are large trees with grayish scaling bark and deciduous, alternate, palmately-shaped leaves (with parts diverging from a common base, as the fingers of a hand), with hairs on the underside. The trees are popular street and shade trees in North America and are wind pollinated.

Pollen Description

The pollen grains are suboblate, the amb triangular and lobed and 3-colpate. The colpi are short and broad and the sexine is finely reticulate.

Pollen grains are usually 17-19 x 18-20 micrometers.

Genus Distribution

The shaded areas on the map indicates where the genus has been observed in the United States.

- Native, observed in a county 

- Introduced, observed in a county 

- Rarely observed