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Ambrosia trifida
Also called Giant Ragweed, Horseweed, Buffalo Weed, Perennial Ragweed, Blood Ragweed, Great Ragweed, Buffalo Weed, Tall Ragweed
Great ragweed is a tall, coarse annual weed native to North America that grows up to 2 m, and much taller in rich, moist soil. It is grown as a plant only by accident or for mulch and compost use, and it is a common weed rather than an ornamental.
Ambrosia trifida, the giant ragweed, is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae. It is native to North America, where it is widespread in Canada, the United States, and northern Mexico.
It is present in Europe and Asia as an introduced species, and it is known as a common weed in many regions. Its common names include great ragweed, Texan great ragweed, giant ragweed, tall ragweed, blood ragweed, perennial ragweed, horseweed, buffaloweed, and kinghead.
Native Americans had a number of uses for the plant as traditional medicine. The Cherokee used it as a remedy for insect stings, hives, fever, and pneumonia, and the Iroquois used it to treat diarrhea. The plant is suspected to have been domesticated by Native Americans as a oily seed crop as early as 1200BCE. This means it may have been a member of the Eastern Agricultural Complex.
Ambrosia arborescens · Annual ragweed · Coastal ragweed · Skeletonleaf bur ragweed · Ragweed
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Ambrosia trifida by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
