Airborne pollen grain concentrations at two different heights

Abstract

The present study describes the airborne pollen grain concentrations at two different heights (1.5 m and 15 m, respectively). The survey was carried out in 1991 and 1992, using two Burkard spore-traps, both set up at the University of Córdoba, Faculty of Sciences. Generally, and for all herbaceous plants, pollen detection started and ended around the same date on both samplers. However, in the case ofOlea europaea, the pollen was detected in advance by the sampler located at 1.5 m compared with the one located at 15 m, probably due to the fact that olives growing close to the low sampler flower before the great olive plantations located some 60 km south of the city. No significant differences between the counts of both samplers have been observed, except in the case of Urticaceae, where the sampler situated on top of the building recorded higher pollen concentrations in both years. Similar annual peaks of Urticaceae are probably due to the buoyancy of their small, light grains and the explosive pollination mechanism which liberates pollen grains from the anthers of the Urticaceae family, includingUrtica andParietaria.