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Mugwort pollen

Mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris) is airborne here from july to september, peaking August. Allergenic potency: high. Cross-reacts with celery and celeriac, carrot, parsley, caraway and others.

This is reference information, not a diagnosis and not a treatment plan. A pollen calendar cannot tell you what you are allergic to, and no page can clear a food as safe for you — only the label on the packet in your hand and the clinician who knows your history can do that. Anything beyond mild, short-lived symptoms in the mouth or nose — swelling that affects breathing or swallowing, hives away from the mouth, wheeze, vomiting or faintness — is an emergency question, not a reading question.

● peak weeks · ○ usually airborne. Typical mainland window from the national aerobiology monitoring programmes of the region · checked 2026-09-06

Where it grows here

Mugwort is the tall grey-green weed of railway sidings, roadsides, harbour edges, building sites and neglected ground in every town in this region. It is inconspicuous — the flowers are small and dull — and it grows in exactly the places nobody manages, which is why the late-summer season is so reliable.

When it is in the air

Mugwort flowers from July to September with the heaviest days in August, and it is the last big pollen season of the northern year. Symptoms that begin in August, after grass has faded, and continue into September are the classic mugwort pattern.

What it feels like

Late-summer rhinitis and conjunctivitis, often with a more prominent throat and cough component than the spring seasons. In people who also react to the mugwort food group, a reaction to a spice mix or a bowl of soup made with celeriac can appear in the same weeks.

What it cross-reacts with

Mugwort carries the most clinically important food cross-reactions after birch. The pattern usually described as celery-mugwort-spice syndrome links mugwort pollen with celery and celeriac, carrot, and the carrot-family spices — parsley, caraway, coriander, cumin, fennel, aniseed and dill — plus black pepper, sunflower seed and chamomile. Unlike the birch reactions, some of these proteins survive cooking, so heat-treated celery and ground spices can still cause trouble. Reactions here can be more than an itchy mouth, and that is what makes this list worth taking seriously.

Related pollens: ragweed and other daisy-family plants, including chamomile and feverfew.

Foods reported to cross-react:

Celery and celeriacCarrotParsleyCarawayCorianderCuminFennelAniseedDillBlack pepperSunflower seedChamomile teaMangoPeach

A cross-reaction is not the same as a food allergy that started with food, and the difference decides how serious it is. Read how oral allergy syndrome works before drawing conclusions from this list, and note that several of these foods also appear on the fourteen declarable EU allergens for entirely separate reasons.

Named allergen molecules: Art v 1 (a defensin-like protein, the major allergen), Art v 3 (lipid transfer protein), Art v 4 (profilin). These are the official WHO/IUIS names, and they are what a component-resolved blood test reports.

What actually helps

Mugwort is one of the five types the CAMS European forecast models. Because the plant grows in unmanaged urban ground, exposure is often very local — a specific route to work, a particular railway embankment — and changing that route can genuinely help in a way it cannot with birch. Anyone who has had more than mouth symptoms after celery or spices should have that assessed rather than managed alone.

What gets misread

Mugwort is regularly mistaken for a long grass season. It is also confused with ragweed, its relative, which is a different plant with a different profile in this region — ragweed here mostly arrives on the wind from far away, while mugwort is growing at the end of the street.

Sources: Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011, Annex II · Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 828/2014 (gluten claims) · WHO/IUIS Allergen Nomenclature · season windows from the national aerobiology monitoring programmes of Estonia, Finland, Sweden, Denmark and Norway · cross-reaction patterns paraphrased from the allergy literature and EAACI material · checked 2026-09-06

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