Olive Pollen
TreesA major allergen in Mediterranean countries and other warm regions where olive trees are cultivated. Cross-reactive with ash and privet pollen.
In a typical year, Olive Pollen season runs April to June, peaking around May.
No tracked city is currently reporting measurable Olive Pollen, which is typical when it is out of season.
Olive Pollen season by country
Typical windows from our country pollen calendars; the weather shifts them earlier or later each year.
| Country | Season | Peak |
|---|---|---|
| Australia | Oct–Dec | Nov–Dec |
About Olive Pollen
The olive tree is one of the main pollen allergens of the Mediterranean. Olive groves cover huge areas of Spain, Italy, Greece, Turkey and North Africa, and where groves are dense, as in southern Spain, olive pollen reaches some of the highest tree pollen counts recorded anywhere. Its major allergen, Ole e 1, is closely related to allergens in ash, privet and lilac. Much of the olive sensitisation reported further north in Europe, where ash is common and olive trees are scarce, is now understood to be cross-reactivity to ash pollen rather than exposure to olive itself.
Olive flowers in late spring, from April to June with a peak in May, slightly later in cooler or higher areas. It is also planted far beyond its native range, including Australia, where it flowers in the southern spring, from October into early summer. There, cultivated trees have escaped into the bush so widely that it is a declared weed of native vegetation in parts of South Australia.