Airborne pollen in Genoa (NW-Italy): a comparison between two pollen-sampling stations

A comparison between two pollen-sampling stationsin the city area of Genoa is presented. The samplingsites are placed 3 km apart, respectively in theeastern urban area (St. Martino Hospital – S.M.) andin the historical centre (Botanical Garden – B.G.).Pollen sampling was carried out during the years1995–1997 at the two different sites by volumetricHirst-type sampler and then compared. The dailyairborne pollen concentration of Urticaceae, Poaceae,Cupressaceae/Taxaceae, Corylaceae/Betulaceae andOleaceae resulted prevailingly higher at S.M., while a good correspondence was observed from a phenologicpoint of view. Asteraceae have shown the bestqualitative-quantitative consistency. In springtime adifference was recorded for Urticales, maybe due tolocal occurence (B.G.) of Broussonetia papyrifera(Moraceae). On the whole, the correspondence betweenthe two different sampling stations proved to besatisfactory.