RAGWEED

(genus Ambrosia), any of a group of about 15 species of weedy plants of the family Asteraceae. Most species are native to North America. The ragweeds are coarse annuals with rough hairy stems, mostly lobed or divided leaves, and inconspicuous greenish flowers that are borne in small heads, the male in terminal spikes and the female in the upper axils of the leaves. The common ragweed (A. artemisiifolia), also called Roman wormwood, hogweed, hogbrake, and bitterweed, is found across the North American continent. It typically grows about 3.5 feet (1 m) high and has thin, alternate or opposite, much-divided leaves. The great, or giant, ragweed (A. trifida), also called bitterweed, or horse cane, is native from Quebec to British Columbia and southward to Florida, Arkansas, and California. It grows from 3 to 17 feet (0.9 m to 5 m) high and has three- to five-lobed leaves. Both the common and great ragweed are annuals and often become pernicious weeds; their pollen, which is shed in great abundance in late summer, is the principal cause of hay fever in eastern and middle North America. Since these species are annuals, their eradication is easy if they are mowed well before they shed their copious pollen.