Allergy Information

Since beet pollen is wind dispersed and higly allergenic, severe pollinosis could occur, especially near sugar beet fields.

Genus Details

Beets are native to southern Europe and are cultivated for food and sugar production. Beets are tall succulent plants with large, fleshy, glossy leaves, and spikes of green flowers. They bloom June-August. Beets can grow to 2 feet tall. The root can be made into a pleasant tasting wine.

Pollen Description

The pollen grains of these families are spheroidal and pantoporate; the pores 20-65 per grain, usually circular, either globally distributed or in luminoid areas separated by muroid ridges; and the opercular granular. The sexine is often tegillate, undulating with a granular surface that is spinulose. The nexine is as thick as or often thinner than the sexine and the intine is generally thick or indistinct.

The pollen grains are 14-50 micrometers in diameter.

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