HERB - ragweed

[Kathleen H. Keeler]

>On Mon, 20 Jul 1998 13:37:44 -0700 "sunshinegirl"
><sunshinegirl at steward-net.com> writes:
>>
>>Would someone describe ragweed to me?  It has lots and lots of thin
>>"leaves", the petals are
>>yellow,
>>usually nine on a flower, and sorta heart shaped, except with three
>>lobes
>>instead of two.  The center is light orange.  It grows to about a foot
>>high, and it is very bitter (wash your hands after pulling, before
>>eating
>>anything with fingers-sometimes two or three times)
>>thanks for any info,
>>Melandra of the Woods
Melandra
  Ragweeds are _Ambrosia_ species, members of the sunflower family,
Asteraceae, but because they are wind-pollinated (and so put lots of pollen
in the air to cause allergies), the flowers are green and very
inconspicuous.
There is some color in the anthers (containing the pollen) but yellow
rather than orange.  And you have to turn the flower stalk upside down to
see it.
The flowers are actually groups of tiny flowers (like in a a daisy (or
chamomile or sagebrush or other members of the family only much smaller and
green).
        The commonest ragweeds have "ragged" leaves irregularly divided
into 3 or 5 lobes.

  I think you are more likely to have a southwestern member of the family
with yellow or orange compound flowers that are insect pollinated.  The
desert southwest is dominated by unpalatable plants--otherwise the animals
would eat them up during the seasons when animals are active but plants are
growing slowly or not at all for lack of water.

   That assumes that your "petals" are really the ray florets. If you
really have petals and a non-compound flower, you don't have the sunflower
family and its a lot harder to guess what it is.  But the Asteraceae are
(after grasses) the most numerous North American family and many of them
flower in late summer, so it could easily be Asteraceae.

  I also dont think of ragweed as being particularly bad smelling or that
the smell clings--sagebrushes and chamomile have much stronger,
longer-lasting "body odors".

   Do you have web access? I think you can quickly find ragweed pictures
under "allergy" and probably your bitterweed under "range weeds" (I presume
weed id pages exist).

Agnes
(not yet allergic to ragweed and, having found that one species is the
single most common native plant in good condition tallgrass prairie in
Kansas, I'm trying to get over its bad image and give it some respect as a
Native American.)


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