Bleary-eyed hay fever sufferers and pollen-sensitive citizens may soon be saved by a new wave of thinking from the United States.
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US horticultural expert Thomas Ogren has flown to Canberra to further his mission of ridding our cities of asthma and allergic triggers.
The author and consultant has worked for several decades curating plant choices in schools, parks and city gardens to diminish the impact it can have on people's health.
He said the cause of too many landscape planning fails has been ignoring the sex of plants.
"A lot of plants are male or female. If it is a male plant it always produced pollen if it is a female plant it never produces pollen, and they always trap pollen of their own species. They are not only allergy free. They are allergy fighting."
He said with hybrid species there were a huge variety of cultivars which were not pollen producing, from grasses all the way to trees.
But selection needed to be thoughtful.
Speaking at the Aboriculture Australia Ltd conference on Monday and Tuesday Mr Ogren hoped to engage both levels of government, health and city planning experts about the benefits of plant knowledge and using it to prevent adverse health reactions.
He will use pollen dispersals studies to challenge the idea that reactions are are unavoidable.
As well as canvas tactics such as pollarding or heavily pruning existing trees such as London Plane to minimise pollen creation often associated with exacerbating allergies.
Or using protective hedges formed of pollen-trapping plants as a wind break to cocoon areas frequented by the public from windborne pollens.
Mr Ogren has been successful in working to proactively plant better with cities in Canada, Israel and New Zealand as well as working in several states in America on laws to prevent the sale and new planting of highly allergenic plants.
He said the major obstacle was a lack of knowledge about plant behaviour and finding the funding and bodies willing to take responsibility and make change to improve air quality for sufferers.
In his conference address he spoke passionately about a young child who died after suffering an asthmatic attack in a Los Angeles school.
After the sad story he remarked there might not be be a cooler job in the world than his - using plants to potentially save a child's life or so they can safely enjoy playing outdoors.
"I want to strike a bit of a fire in the hearts of people that hear me, to make a difference where they live," he said.
"I'm talking about transforming our schools, parks, suburban streets, where we work. All those landscapes. Why not make them allergy-friendly environments?"
