Fellow garden club member and nature lover Jim Lantz alerted me to the gorgeous meadow of goldenrod along Old Rte. 10 in Grantham. It’s their very beautiful yellow blossoms that attract the pollinators as well as folks like Jim and me. The meadow was buzzing with bees.
Hay fever sufferers often give goldenrod a bad rap and blame it for their itchy eyes and runny noses. I’d like to set the record straight. Ragweed is the guilty party while goldenrod plants are merely innocent bystanders.
The reason for the confusion is that they blossom at the same time of year starting in late summer. Their method of pollination is very different and is the reason why ragweed causes hay fever. Goldenrod has bright yellow blossoms to attract pollinators who pick up their sticky pollen and carry it from blossom to blossom.
Ragweed looks very different. It has tiny green flowers which make tiny pollen that is windborne. A single ragweed plant can produce over a billion pollen grains which can travel for miles in a stiff wind. If you enjoy spending time outdoors at this time of year, it is impossible to avoid inhaling some. Researches have found ragweed pollen two miles up in the atmosphere and 400 miles out at sea.
Before my PictureThis app identified ragweed for me, I was guilty of blaming goldenrod for the problems that ragweed cause and offer my sincere apologies.
Hay fever sufferers often give goldenrod a bad rap and blame it for their itchy eyes and runny noses. I’d like to set the record straight. Ragweed is the guilty party while goldenrod plants are merely innocent bystanders.
The reason for the confusion is that they blossom at the same time of year starting in late summer. Their method of pollination is very different and is the reason why ragweed causes hay fever. Goldenrod has bright yellow blossoms to attract pollinators who pick up their sticky pollen and carry it from blossom to blossom.
Ragweed looks very different. It has tiny green flowers which make tiny pollen that is windborne. A single ragweed plant can produce over a billion pollen grains which can travel for miles in a stiff wind. If you enjoy spending time outdoors at this time of year, it is impossible to avoid inhaling some. Researches have found ragweed pollen two miles up in the atmosphere and 400 miles out at sea.
Before my PictureThis app identified ragweed for me, I was guilty of blaming goldenrod for the problems that ragweed cause and offer my sincere apologies.
Ragweed - the real culprit
Showy contrast of purple loosestrife and goldenrod
White asters and goldenrod
Wildflowers picked from the Old Rte. 10 meadow and displayed at the GGC 25th anniversary party
A happy bee surrounded by goldenrod
