HERB - Echinacea question

[Kathleen Keeler]

Hi ya-all

Echinacea is a composite (family Asteraceae, aka Compositae).  So are
sunflowers, chrysanthemums, chickory, asters, zinnias, calendula, marigolds,
jerusalem artichokes, artichokes, thistles like musk thistle, and Canada
thistle, chamomile, lettuce, sagebrushes, wormwood and mugwort  (_Artemisia_
species) and ragweed.

Its the largest plant family with over 20,000 species.  Your typical sunflower
flower is the norm, but some species have that  flower some other color (red,
blue) while in some it is reduced to only a few florets (some asters, skeleton
weed, some _Liatris_ species).  All of those are probably animal (insect)
pollinated.  Ragweed (_Ambrosia_ ) represents wind-pollinated composites.  The
flowers are green and inconspicuous because there's no need for a bright color
to attract a pollinator.  But if you pull them off and look through a
magnifying glass, there's no question they are arranged like the interior of a
small sunflower or an aster.  Another wind-pollinated composite in our region
(midwest) is _Iva_, povertyweed, which looks a lot like a big sunflower from
its leaves, but never appears to bloom (no big yellow flowers), because, like
ragweed, it has small green flowers.

So, yes, they think the chemicals people are allergic to in ragweed are likely
enough to be found in any other member of the family that if you are allergic
to ragweed you should avoid them.

Of the websites I could find talking about hte family, this had a picture of
ragweed and other Asteraceae

http://www.csdl.tamu.edu/FLORA/201Manhart/Dicots/Asteridae/Ast/Ast.html

Agnes
kkeeler1 at unl.edu



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