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["kieran or donna" <redherring@tnaccess.com>]

About 6 years ago, AFTER I planted chinese chestnuts, a friend complained about her allergic reaction to the chestnuts in her yard.  When I looked shocked, she led me out into the backyard and pointed to a big tree.  There was a strange smell, like clorox, like I used to smell at a house where for a month in early summer I used to feel like hell every morning after about half an hour in the backyard.  Within moments her face was red and swollen looking and we went back in.  She said, " I keep after my husband to chop them down, every year this happens."  I was beyond shock at that point, weighing the possibilities. 

    I wrote about this in POMONA, asking why no one talked about chestnuts as potent allergens, and musing about the smell and quality of life at this time of year when the eastern forests were as much as 40% chestnut trees.  Someone responded that chestnuts are not potent allergens, but that male mulberries are and because they don't smell bad like chestnuts, no one notices them.  WELL, the same house had a huge male white mulberry that covered half the backyard.  As it turns out, mulberries bloom much earlier than chestnuts here, but we've not had blooms in any quantity from either one till this year.  We had 4 chestnuts bloom well this year for the first time in their lives, and we seemed to have a lot of trouble for 2 weeks with dizziness and congestion.  Maybe it was a virus, but I always seemed to feel better if I got way down at the far end of the garden from them, some 400-500 feet away. 

    So, tell me, do any of you know anyone who has trouble with chestnut trees in bloom?  Is there anyone with chestnuts who can tell me that you DON'T have any trouble with them?   I found nothing of note doing a Google search for chestnut, pollen, allergy.   Donna