The forecast suggests you’re likely to be sneezing from plant pollen this week as hay fever season gets underway, but the culprit might not be the species you think it is.
Goldenrod, the tall roadside plant with yellow flowers, is often blamed for seasonal allergies.
It is possible to be allergic to goldenrod, but you’re much more likely to be sneezing at ragweed. In fact, allergy forecasts include ragweed as a category of its own.
The two plants look similar and flower at the same time, but a key difference in how they are pollinated sets them apart: goldenrod pollen is carried by insects moving from plant to plant, while ragweed produces a lot of pollen that spreads on the wind.
Goldenrod is actually an important resource for Maine’s pollinator species, too.
An easy way to tell the difference between the two plants is to look at their flowers. Goldenrod flowers are, surprisingly, golden, while ragweed flowers stay green because the plant doesn’t need to attract insects or birds to spread its pollen.
There’s lots of pollen to spread: one plant can create a billion grains of it, according to the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America.
Goldenrod also grows on a single stem with leaves branching off, while ragweed branches out from the bottom of the plant.
It’s considered a “keystone species” for insects, according to the National Wildlife Federation, hosting dozens of types of native bees and the caterpillars of more than 100 native moths and butterflies. The declining monarch butterfly population relies on it for food when migrating south, and songbirds eat the seeds. Bees also nest in the dead plants over winter.
The numerous species of its lookalike, ragweed, are related to other allergy-causing plants that spread their pollen through the wind, including sage and mugwort. Many Maine trees, including conifers, oaks and beeches, and grasses are also wind-pollinated and cause seasonal allergies.
About a quarter of adults have seasonal allergies in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
To manage your symptoms, in addition to medication or eye drops, you can keep your windows closed at home, change your clothes and shoes when you come in from outside and shower after exposure to pollen, which can stick to you. If you take medication, make sure you’re consistent with it for it to be effective.
Goldenrod can be an allergy medicine, too. Some drink it as tea or make a tincture to help the symptoms caused by plants like ragweed.
