Dictionary of Allergies .. Cypress, Italian Cypress, [(L) Cypressus sempervirens,

Italian cypress grows wild in the Mediterranean area and is distributed eastwards from Italy, Greece to Iran. It is planted as an ornamental and in cemeteries in places such as Australia, New Zealand, Chile, China, and along the Rhone valley of France, but it grows in Britain north to Edinburgh.

It is considered a tree of major allergenic importance especially in the countries around Mediterranean. If flowers from March to April. Cross-reactivity has been suggested within the Cupressaceae family to Juniperus and Mountain Juniper. In RAST it is symbolized as t23. 

Cypress allergy seems to be an important cause of early spring pollenosis.  Specific IgE determination is considered by many authors  "immunoseful" in the diagnosis of Cup s pollen allergy, because there is a need of better purified and characterized allergenic extracts of cypress[1]. Desloratadine is efficacious and safe for the treatment of AR induced by cypress pollens; it also improved disease-related quality of life [2].

1. Mari, A. et al: Specific IgE in Cupressus sempervirens (Cup s) pollen Allergy. Comparison of six methods. Abstracts of XV International Congress and Annual Meeting of EAACI, June 26 - July 1, 1994, Stockholm, Sweden, Hogrefe and Huber Pub.  p. 502.

2. Demoly P, Dreyfus I, Dhivert-Donnadieu H, Mesbah K. Desloratadine for the treatment of cypress pollen-induced allergic rhinitis. Ann Allergy Asthma Immunol. 2009 Sep;103(3):260-6.