The London plane tree, a divisive staple of many Australian city streetscapes, will be gradually removed from Melbourne’s central business district and replaced with species resistant to climate change such as Moreton Bay figs, jacarandas and sweet gums.

London plane trees make up 70% of the tree population in Melbourne’s inner city. While admired by some for their hardiness and environmental benefits such as providing extensive cooling and shade, the trees are also unpopular for shedding leaf and shoot hairs, known as trichomes, during the same period that grass pollen levels are at their highest.

It means the trees are also blamed for causing hay fever and allergic reactions, even though the most common cause of hay fever is grass pollen and there is limited evidence that plane trees cause allergies. However, the fine hairs are renowned for making people cough and for irritating skin.

A University of Melbourne botanist, Ed Newbigin, who heads the Melbourne pollen count, said “lots of people hate plane trees”.

“They certainly do. But they’re not going to cause anaphylaxis,” he said. “You’d have to bury yourself in them for that. They’re more of an irritation to the eyes and skin, and they’re also a bit messy. You’ll be sitting outside of a cafe on a sidewalk and suddenly you’ll have bits of plane tree blow into your coffee.”

To Newbigin, however, “they’re a beautiful tree”.

“They have an open canopy, they take surgery well so you can get them to grow around power lines, so they do a lot of things that are good for cities and they do make cities cooler on a hot day.”

The acting lord mayor, Arron Wood, said the main reason the trees were being replaced was that many were planted in the 1980s and 1990s when they replaced poorly performing ash trees and some elms and paperbarks. But the trees were now in poor health and needed to be removed, he said.

“The plane trees in Swanston Street form a consistent and relatively healthy avenue, but where plane trees in other parts of the city need to be removed we are taking opportunities to replace them with different tree species,” he said.

Along the Russell Street median strip the trees are being replaced with spotted gums, while along Exhibition Street they have been replaced with camphor laurels. Port Jackson figs have replaced them along Lonsdale Street, while liquidamber, lemon-scented gums and red ironbarks are being planted along Southbank Boulevard.

This was also being done to increase tree diversity, the council said in a statement.

The director of respiratory medicine, allergy and clinical immunology research at Monash University, Prof Robyn O’Hehir, said the fine particles from plane trees could cause throat irritation and laryngospasm – a spasm of the vocal cords – even in people who are not prone to allergies.

“I warn patients to wear wraparound sunglasses and avoid prominent plane tree areas such as street cafes in Carlton in August and September when they are most problematic,” she said. “People often need water or a mouthful of bread to clear the fine particles from their throats.”