. MANY of the 93 airborne pollen types found in the Murcia area occur in notably different patterns to those reported in other Spanish sites and from those shown in European calendars (4). These calendars have been used for many years as the ‘classical’ reference source because of the poor development of aerobiology in Spain until recently. The particular climate in Murcia area (mean annual temperature of 16.88C) allows many species to flower repeatedly throughout the year. That is why some pollen taxa .(Fig. 1) show especially long pollen seasons which have been rarely described or, as in the case of Phoenix and Artemisia, have not been reported outside south-east Spain (1). High incidence of Chenopodiaceae-Amaranthaceae in Murcia (49.5%) is probably due to these high pollen levels. Brassicaceae is seldom referred to as an airborne pollen and usually occurs for periods not exceeding one month, but in Murcia this pollen occurs continuously for almost five months. Certain other taxa (Fig. 1) are unusual because they bloom outside the ‘‘classical’’ times. Casuarina pollen occurs in February and June (not reported hitherto in Europe), and Artemisia shows an autumnal pollen season and a very important winter one that does not occur out of south-east Spain (1); these are the more interesting and noteworthy ‘‘out of season’’ pollen taxa. Finally, consideration must be given to some unique pollen types (Fig. 1), which are rarely referred to as airborne or which are totally absent in other localities. Among these are Zygophyllum which has been reported only in the Murcia region, and which was recently identified as an allergen (4). Records of pollen levels for Caryophyllaceae are up to 37 times higher in Murcia than those referred to in Italian sites, and four times higher than those recorded in other Spanish localities. We compared ordinary pollen skin prick test protocols of the major Murcian hospitals with protocols of several allergologists, and found that no more than seven pollen types are customarily included, namely Artemisia (incidence of 23.5%), Chenopodiaceae (49.5%), Olea (68.4%), Parietaria (51.0%), Plantago (17.9%), Poaceae (55.1%), and Rumex (9.7%). Yet up to 21 pollen taxa occurring in concentrations hypothetically high enough to provoke local or regional allergic disease could be .systematically ignored in skin prick test protocols. Nine of them have been positively identified as allergens affecting the Murcia population: Acer (incidence of 10.2%), Cupressus (2.5%), Mercurialis (9.7%), Morus (8.7%), Pinus (1.0%), Platanus (11.2%), Quercus (2.5%), Robinia (7.6%) and recently Zygophyllum (15.3%). For another 12 species the incidence is still unknown: Apiaceae, Brassicaceae, Caryophyllaceae, Casuarina, Cyperaceae, Eucalyptus, Fraxinus, Ligustrum, Phoenix, Pistacia, Populus and Thymelaea. All in all, we strongly recommend allergologists to consider these new types of plant pollen and evaluate the convenience of including them in the standard skin prick test. A example of the importance of considering minority pollen types is the recent discovery of Zygophyllum as an Of the 93 species some