These are making you sneeze

Here's a tribute to two plants that make me miserable this time of year, and send me to the medicine cabinet for my allergy remedy of choice, Claritin. (Seriously, just looking at these things sets me off. I just sneezed twice while writing this, Megan yelled bless you from the other room).

The two ragweeds, Ambrosia artemisiifolia and Ambrosia trifida..

 

 

And no, goldenrod is not what makes you sneeze! I think people just see fields of goldenrod about the same time their late summer allergies flare up, and figure that it must be the fields of yellow that is causing their suffering. Goldenrod, though, is not pollinated by wind, but by insects. Wind pollinated plants give us problems, since the pollen floats around the air and eventually winds up in our noses, causing us to have these annoying immune responses. These two plants are both annuals, so they are likely to be found in recently disturbed places, such as an empty lot in a new development, or any exposed dirt area.