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Ragweed

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Hello Gardeners, I’m Amanda McNulty with Clemson Extension and Making It Grow. Feel free to bring flowering stems of goldenrod indoors – with insect-disseminated pollen it doesn’t cause allergies. It’s ragweed that makes copious amounts of nose-tickling pollen so light weight that winds blow it far and wide. Our most common ragweed is Ambrosia artesimifolia (no one seems to know why it’s called Ambrosia – the food of the Gods), and usually it tops out at a couple of feet. But in the upper half of the state, on heavier soils, giant ragweed thrives as a major pest. It easily gets over ten feet tall and makes pollen and seeds in even more massive quantities than its shorter relative. Ragweed seeds are tiny, with a beak that helps them stick to other surfaces, and now these native ragweeds are noxious weeds worldwide as they’ve been uninvited hitchhikers in grain shipments delivered to other countries.

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Amanda McNulty is a Clemson University Extension Horticulture agent and the host of South Carolina ETV’s Making It Grow! gardening program. She studied horticulture at Clemson University as a non-traditional student. “I’m so fortunate that my early attempts at getting a degree got side tracked as I’m a lot better at getting dirty in the garden than practicing diplomacy!” McNulty also studied at South Carolina State University and earned a graduate degree in teaching there.