Did Milwaukee city planners make your allergies worse?
MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- As your nose likely knows, allergy season is here. A theory that has gone viral (again) on social media suggests that the planting practices of American cities is at least partially to blame for your bad allergies.
There's even a hashtag to describe the theory: #botanicalsexism
The idea appears to be rooted in a 2006 NPR podcast in which horticulturalist Tom Ogren says city planners planted male trees exclusively, because female trees often produce seed pods or fruit that is messy to clean up. Male trees spread pollen and female trees absorb it, so the imbalance is the reason why there is too much pollen in the air, and the reason many people are sneezing uncontrollably every spring.
Over the years, social media influencers have picked up on the idea. Some of the original TikTok videos on this subject have been taken down, but a recent Facebook reel that explains and advances #BotanicalSexism has more than 102,000 likes and more than 36,000 shares.
Did Milwaukee plant too many male trees? We asked Elton Rogers, Urban Forestry Coordinator for the Wisconsin DNR, who says don't believe everything you see on social media.
"Some of these things go viral, with very little research to back it up," Rogers said.
Rogers says the biology of trees does not lend itself to human-like gender classification.
The DNR also has estimates for the street trees planted in Milwaukee, and the number of strictly "male" trees planted is less than 2%.
Dioecious (Both Male and Female Plantings)
55,270
27.08%
Monoecious
56,915
29.51%
Polygamous
80,628
41.81%
Dioecious (Male Plantings Only)
3,039
1.58%
Unknown
.02%
"Selectively just planting male cultivars species is just not true," Rogers said.
So, while social media can be a source of useful information, Rogers encourages people to verify a controversial post or video with their local experts. He hopes the idea of "botanical sexism" dies on the vine.
"It's one of those things where it's this flashy word, flashy phrase, but when you actually get down into the weeds of it, there's most often a lot more to the story," he said.