Allergy Information

This pollen is reported to be allergenic. Privets usually have secondary allergenic significance except where they are abundant and allowed to flower. They are in the particularly allergenic olive family.

Genus Details

Privets are evergreen or deciduous shrubs in the olive family. The leaves are opposite and 1-2.5 inches long. Numerous small, white flowers are located in compact terminal clusters similar in appearance to lilacs, but with a disagreeable odor. The plant is generally insect pollinated but if the pollen is not taken away by insects, the position of the anthers allow the pollen to be dispersed by the wind. Allergenicity to privet shrubs can be greatly reduced by keeping shrubs trimmed low to discourage flowering.

Asthma Description

The pollen grains are prolate or suboblate to spheroidal; the amb triangular and 3-colporate. The surface of the pollen grain is coarsely reticulate.

Pollen grains vary in size from 28-32 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