Flowers in the Hospital: more than just anti-depressants

People give and receive flowers for birthdays, funerals, and when they are in the hospital. From one perspective, you might say that flowers make people a little happier, so they have an anti-depressant function; but what if the effect actually goes beyond mood-uplift?

Flowers have evolved to release pollen, and pollen has evolved to attract vectors (animals) that will carry the pollen to other plants. So, logically, there are many ways that pollen can do that, e.g. by smelling good enough to stimulate us to smell flowers, but then making us sneeze so the pollen spreads.

Pollen and viruses are not so different in this regard. Viruses and pollen not only share the same basic shape, they also use us as vectors to spread and reproduce. So in a sense viruses and pollen are in competition for our mucus membranes as vehicles for their transportation.

Fall and winter are seasons where people traditionally get sick more. Part of the reason for this might be the changing weather and spending more time indoors to avoid the cold, but the dying back of trees and plants could also contribute to our vulnerability insofar as viruses suddenly gain a monopoly position as colonizers of our mucus membranes.

If pollen helps our immune systems by competing for air-space and 'mucus-membrane space,' flowers in hospital rooms, churches, funerals, and other gatherings and public spaces could have more than just psychological effects.

Maybe some experiments should be done introducing pollen into hospitals, nursing homes, etc. where there are no live trees and garden spaces that produce it naturally to test whether the pollen itself has positive effects on health. Flowers may just be psychologically beneficial for their natural anti-depressant effects, but it would be good to know if their pollen and aroma have positive effects that go beyond aesthetics.