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Ragweeds (Ambrosia Spp.)-The Hay Fever Weeds'

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Ragweeds (Ambrosia Spp.)-The Hay Fever Weeds' - Intriguing World of Weeds iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii Ragweeds (Ambrosia spp.)-The Hay Fever Weeds' LARRY W. MITICH2 "Wither'd hogs ... on ragweed nags, They skim the muirs [moors]." Address to the Diel, 1785, Scottish poet Robert Burns (1759-1796). INTRODUCTION Collectively, the ragweeds are one of the United States' few serious native weeds. They are members of the Aster­ aceae (Compositae), but for at least a century they were in their own famiiy, the Ambrosieae (a small family of about 55 native American taxa), having been separated from Compositae for convenience in 1828 by Ludwig [Heinrich Gottlieb] Reinchenbach ( 1793-1879), in his Conspectus regni vegtabilis (9). Ultimately, the ragweeds were placed in the Asteraceae (8, 18). The genus Ambrosia includes Franseria Cav. The Common ragweed new line up: 24 cosmopolitan species, 1 European (20). Treatise of Agriculture, where he remarked "The yellow Ambrosia means "food for the rag-weed, by which light land, when laid out to grass, is gods." Why it was used as a generic very much infested" (25). This invader from America had name for the ragweed is not known. already become troublesome in Great Britain. John Lin­ Blatchey (8) expounded that the person" ... who first used dley and Thomas Moore were the first to use the term in it may have had the equine god in mind, for horses are very the U.S. in their The Treasury ofBotany, published in 1866; fond of this species, often forsaking other food for its juicy they refer to "Ragweed ambrosia trifide [sic]" (25). leaves and branches. Among the poorer classes about the Linneaus described common ragweed, Ambrosia arte­ larger towns and cities quantities of it are gathered in misiifolia, and giant ragweed, A. trifida, in his Species August and September to be used instead of hay ... As one Plantarum in 1753 (9). Overthe years, 20 scientific names walks or drives along streams or thr~mgh low ground including species, subspecies, varieties, and forms have woodlands in early autumn he whiffs its peculiar odor been placed in synonymy under A. artemisiifolia, includ­ which is exhaled readily, bounteously, to all comers. To ing A. elatior L. and A. artemisiifolia L. var. elatior (L.) some persons it is doubtless disagreeable, but to me it is (23). rich, strong, powerful-fit odor for the gods." Augustin Pyramus de Candolle ( 1778-1841) named The word ragweed first entered the English language in perennial ragweed, A. psilostachya, in his Prodromus regni 1658 when Sir Thomas Browne wrote in The Gardens of vegetabilis, published in 1836 (9). In Greek psi/us= bare, Cyprus, ". it is often observable in furre, pillitory, smooth, uncovered, and stachys = an ear of grain, in Ragweed, [etc.]." This was followed in 1682 by Sir George reference to the plant's slender seed head (19). Synonymy Wheler's comment in A Journey into Greece, "The leaves under this taxon embraces 11 scientific names including are ... something like ragweed." In 1765 Adam Dickson species, subspecies, and varieties. However, the only fre­ was the first to refer to the weedy aspects of the plant in A quently used ones are A. coronopifolia T. & G. and A. psilostachya DC. var. coronopifolia (T. & G.) Farwell (23). 1No. 52 of the series "Intriguing World qf Weeds." 2Ext. Weed Sci. Emeritus, Dep. Vegetabl'e Crops, Univ. California, Davis, CA Common ragweed was recorded as early as 1838 in 95616. Michigan (27). In 1860 at Prescott, Ontario, one of the 236 Weed Technology. 1996. Volume 10:236-240 WEED TECHNOLOGY earliest collections of common ragweed in eastern Canada the most common of weeds, intruding almost everywhere; was made (6). it is a pest in meadows and pastures, for, though cattle do In Ontario, Ambrosia fossil pollen is present all through not relish its bitter juices, they will sometimes eat it when the postglacial time (6). Ambrosia pollen also has been better forage is scar-::e and, as a consequence, yield bitter found in Quebec in interglacial deposits older than 60,000 milk with a bad odor. After the removal of a grain crop this yr. In late-glacial time, unvegetated land resulting from plant nearly always springs up in the stubble." Once in the retreating glaciers apparently provided suitable habitats for soil, seeds survive for years, springing up when opportu­ the northern migration and spread of ragweeds. Only nity offers; they are a common impurity of grain and grass within the last 200 yr or so have ragweeds become abun­ seed and are also distributed in baled hay ( 17). dant again, an increase that coincides with settlement by In the mid-19th century, common ragweed was consid­ pioneers and tree removal for large farms (6). ered a"... worthless weed that occurs in most cultivated Perennial ragweed, native to western North America, grounds, and is usually very abundant among the stubble, has been in eastern Canada for a considerable time. Shortly after a crop of wheat: but, if the land be good, the plant after the retreat of the Wisconsin ice, perennial ragweed seems to be smothered or choked out, the next season, by migrated from the southwest into the eastern areas (6). the crop of clover and timothy. It is always ready, how­ Giant ragweed fruits from pre-Columbian Indian rock ever-like several other coarse weeds-to make its ap­ shelters have been found in Arkansas, Missouri, and Ken­ pearance whenever the grassy turf is broken up" ( 11 ). tucky (7). Perennial ragweed, an erect perennial, grows to 3 to 105 cm high, with horizontal running rootstocks; it spreads by seeds and rhizomes. The stems are unbranched or DESCRIPTIONS AND COMMENTS branched, and are pubescent with stiff, short, minutely Common ragweed is a very variable species, with plants glandular hairs. The leaves are mostly opposite below and differing in size, leaf shape, inflorescence form, and degree alternate above, and are thickish, light green to grayish of hairiness. Its specific epithet artemisiifolia is from the green, with margins that are entire or sparsely serrate. The Greek artemis, referring to Diana3, and the Latin folia, of flower heads contain either male or female flowers and are foloim, leaf; akin to many layers of leaves (29). borne on different parts of the same plant. The male heads An erect annual herb, it grows 5 to 70 cm high with a are 10 to 40 flowered, stalked to subsessile, and arranged tap root, and it spreads only by seeds. Its stems may be in spikes terminating the stems and branchlets. The female unbranched to bushy branched, and glabrous to rough heads are one-flowered, sessile, and single or clustered in hairy. The leaves are short-stalked, mostly opposite below, the upper axils (4). alternate above, thin, and pinnatifid to tri-pinnatifid. Rag­ While perennial ragweed is very similar in appearance weed flower heads contain either male or female flowers, to common ragweed, it is usually a smaller plant with the male heads being 10 to 100 flowered, and are borne in rougher and thicker stems, and less lobed leaves. It is spikes terminating the stems and branchlets (4). The slen­ common in dry soil; abandoned fields, vacant lots, road­ der racemes of little green staminate flowers, like knots or sides, and railway embankments are perennial ragweed's beads along the stem, produce a bounteous crop of yellow favorite haunts. It occurs from Illinois to the Northwest pollen which thickly coats the clothing of whoever passes Territory, southward to Texas, Mexico, and California ( 17), through a clump of ragweed on a summer day (8). The male and especially in the Rocky Mountain states (22). Peren­ and female flower heads usually occur on different parts nial ragweeed is a much harder weed to combat than its of the same plant; rarely are plants entirely female (4). annual relatives, for care in cultivation is necessary to For a long time, the weed was known as Roman worm­ avoid breaking up and spreading abroad the creeping root­ wood and hogweed. A troublesome weed that is very stocks and thus increasing the plague (17). generally distributed throughout the U.S. (22), its range Giant ragweed, an erect annual, grows from 30 to 300 also includes Canada, from Nova Scotia to British Colum­ (avg 150) cm high making it one of the largest annual bia (17). In 1914 Ada Georgia (17) commented: "One of weeds (8). It is fibrous-rooted with a relatively short tap­ root. The plants are rough hairy, and its leaves are opposite, palmately three-lobed, but occasionally five-lobed or even 3Diana was the virgin huntress and the goddess of forests and hills. As Zimdahl (29) explains, "Tying the name to Diana is remote from our experience." unlobed, with serrate margins. Its botanical name trifida is Volume 10, Issue I (January-March) 1996 237 1/i, INTRIGUING WORLD OF WEEDS from the Latin tri, three, andfindere, to divide, referring to giant ragweed yields considerable amo1,1nts of high nutri­ its deeply three-lobed leaves (29). Flowers are produced in tive value forage (14), especially during its seedling stage. greenish heads, each head containing either only female or However, it eventually overtops and out competes numer­ male flowers. Giant ragweed flowers are wind-pollinated ous companion annual species (4). Wrote Georgia (17) in (1). 1914, "It is a huge, coarse plant, occupying so much room Giant ragweed produces bounteous seeds, and though and feeding so grossly that crops growing with it are the plants are easily destroyed, the seeds retain their vitality crowded and starved to death." and are readily carried from place to place by drifting snow (17, 22). The seeds (caryopses) are 6 to 8 mm long and consist of one central beak surrounded by a circle of five HAY FEVER AND DERMATITIS or more marginal points, giving a king's crown appearance, Common ragweed is the most important cause of hay hence the plant's common names-kinghead and crown­ fever in eastern North America (4).
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