GOLDENROD, RAGWEED AND MUGWORT
The Monday Garden,September 12, 2004, Issue 129
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GOLDENROD, RAGWEED AND MUGWORT
GOLDENROD: The goldenrod's blooming, so it must be fall. Goldenrod's a lovely fall bloomer that's gotten an undeserved bad rap as a major source of allergy-causing pollens. While it’s not pollen-free, it’s not the really bad guy. Goldenrod's a friendly, photogenic native, beloved of birds, and bees, and other beneficial insects. There are at least 130 goldenrod species in North America. There's even a seaside variety and a white one (“silver rod’). It's a great late summer garden plant, too.
The villains are some of those easy-to-overlook weedy things with greenish flower stalks. The worst is the wind-pollinated ragweed, which blooms at the same time, and often grows in the same place as goldenrod, and which also belongs to the Aster (Composite) Family. And then there’s ragweed’s close relative the ubiquitous mugwort, which is also coming into bloom now.