Ambrosia trifida - L.

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Summary

An erect summer annual with some useful medicinal qualities and minor edible and other uses. Bloom Color: Green. Main Bloom Time: Early fall, Late summer, Mid summer. Form: Upright or erect. Common Names include: great ragweed, Texan great ragweed, giant ragweed, tall ragweed, blood ragweed, perennial ragweed, horseweed,buffaloweed, and kinghead. Spanish: Artemisa grande. Germany: Dreilappige Ambrosie; Dreispaltige Ambrosie. Japan: kuwamodoki; oobutakusa. Netherlands: driedeelige Ambrosia. Sweden: tall Ambrosia. USA: bitterweed; buffalo weed; crown-weed; horse-cane; horse-weed; kinghead; tall ragweed.

Physical Characteristics

Synonyms

Habitats

Woodland Garden Cultivated Beds;

Edible Uses

References   More on Edible Uses

Medicinal Uses

References   More on Medicinal Uses

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Other Uses

References   More on Other Uses

Cultivation details

References   Carbon Farming Information and Carbon Sequestration Information

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Propagation

Seed - we have no details for this species but suggest sowing the seed in situ in April.

Other Names

If available other names are mentioned here

Native Plant Search

Search over 900 plants ideal for food forests and permaculture gardens. Filter to search native plants to your area. The plants selected are the plants in our book 'Plants For Your Food Forest: 500 Plants for Temperate Food Forests and Permaculture Gardens, as well as plants chosen for our forthcoming related books for Tropical/Hot Wet Climates and Mediterranean/Hot Dry Climates. Native Plant Search

Found In

Countries where the plant has been found are listed here if the information is available

Weed Potential

Right plant wrong place. We are currently updating this section. Please note that a plant may be invasive in one area but may not in your area so it’s worth checking.

A noxious weed, both in its native range and in areas where it is an introduced and often invasive species. Extremely competitive and is very difficult to control, especially in many broadleaved crops. a declared noxious weed in California, Delaware, Illinois and New Jersey, USA and a quarantine weed in Poland and Russia [1c].

Conservation Status

IUCN Red List of Threatened Plants Status : This taxon has not yet been assessed.

Expert comment

Author

L.

Botanical References

222235

Links / References

For a list of references used on this page please go here

Readers comment

David Murray   Mon Feb 03 20:15:50 2003 Hi. First, I'd like to say that I really enjoy your site. Next, I thought you'd like to know about a slight typo... In your Ambrosia trifida fact sheet, you list A. F. Hill's Economic Botany as a source, "the seed contains up to 19% oil [171]." But, if you look in the book, the entries go from ragi to railroad cars, and from Ambergris to Ammoniacum. This book doesn't say a thing about ragweed. However, the bit about the oil is mentioned in your source #61, A Dictionary of Plants Used by Man -nearly word-for-word. So, you might want to switch [61] for [171], and leave out the latter. -Nearly drove me mad; I kept looking through the book and the index, going back and forth until I wrote it all down. :) Oh yeah, one more thing... male and female flowers are separate: male flowers form most of the terminal cluster, while the female flowers are very inconspicuous and are found at the base of the cluster. -They are not hermaphroditic. And they are Wind pollinated (hense all that allergen trouble). Well, thank you for listening to me rant about my favorite plant. And once again, you've got a wonderful website! -David Murray David   Wed Apr 12 2006 Long time, eh? Since I wrote the last comment, I've been able to track down some of the original reports made about the cultivation of the seeds by the pre-Columbian indians. In short, it didn't happen. There are two major populations of ragweed in the United States: west of the mississippi, seeds are tiny; east of the mississippi, they are very large. The original researcher didn't know this of course, and hypothesized that the large seeds he found meant cultivation had occured- when really he found an area where the two populations met and simply wasn't familiar with the eastern variety. Further research shows that the seeds need to be exposed to the wet and cold of winter to germinate- the seeds found in the pre-columbian indian sites were in protective holes kept out of the cold and wet: there was no way that they were saving seeds to plant again- they simply wouldn't germinate. A report concluded that the seeds wouldn't be a good food source because the seeds were entirely protein- which doesn't make much sense to me, but I will continue to look into it. You may wish to up the medicinal value of the plants, above. I have used the leaves when I get nasty cuts in the field while gathering various experimental plants. I chew up a leaf and place the mash on the gash- it stops the bleeding almost instantaneously. I love this plant. Sincerely, David Murray Botanist aubrey james shepherd   Wed Sep 27 2006 We get hundreds of birds of numerous species visiting our backyard in September because we allow the giant ragweed to grow to more than 20 feet some years. My wife's asthma reaches a peak in August and early September but she loves seeing the cardinals in the tops and the doves on the ground and always keeps plenty of the plants until the seed is gone. Then we cut it off near the ground and remove the huge plants to compost. http://www.aubunique.com primarily outdoor recreation and natural-resource conservation. David Beaulieu   Sat Sep 30 2006 Hard to believe this plant is related to common ragweed (Ambrosia artemisiifolia). In my region (New England, U.S.), I regularly encounter common ragweed plants that are rather short (under 1 foot), probably because they grow in areas where they are mowed or trampled upon frequently. In undisturbed areas, they do attain a greater height -- but nothing like that of giant ragweed! Giant Ragweed Introduction to giant ragweed. Pictures of giant ragweed included. Aubrey James Shepherd   Sat Dec 2 2006 The birds ate most of the seed and the plants died and can be sent to the city mulc-production site. We allowed fewer than usual to grow to maturity so there are relatively few big stallks to remove this winter. We had several inches of rain and then light snow the past few days and the ground is soaked and it is easy to pull the dead plants, but we probably will leave most in the ground and lop them off near the surface to avoid disrupting so much of the dark, rich wetland soil in our yard, Plenty of seed feel to regenerate ambrosia next spring. Robins and cardinals and cedar waxwings cleaned off most of the ripe, red berries of our China honeysuckle bushes and the remainder of the hackberries that held on after the leaves fell from our big, old hackberry trees as the wind and rain came in ahead of the light snow. Those honeysuckle berries always disappear during the first snow of the year in Fayetteville, Arkansas. After the rain and snow, the robins went to work on earthworms, while the cedar waxwings mostly disappeared after finishing off the hackberries! aubunique.com outdoor sport and resource conservation information and photos Gwen Giffen   Wed Sep 10 2008 I had the worst time indentifying this plant. I was picking elderberries to make jam, and found its pollen all over the elderberries, and I wanted to make sure it wasn't poisonous. Now I know that my jam will have anti-allergy properties. Thanks! Add a comment If you have important information about this plant that may help other users please add a comment or link below. Only comments or links that are felt to be directly relevant to a plant will be included. If you think a comment/link or information contained on this page is inaccurate or misleading we would welcome your feedback at [email protected]. If you have questions about a plant please use the Forum on this website as we do not have the resources to answer questions ourselves. * Please note: the comments by website users are not necessarily those held by PFAF and may give misleading or inaccurate information. To leave a comment please Register or login here All comments need to be approved so will not appear immediately. Subject : Ambrosia trifida   Plant Uses Edible Uses Medicinal Uses Other Plant uses Woodland Gardening Why Perennial Plants? Top Edible Plants Top Medicinal Plants Garden Design Habitats Translations Content Content Help Bookshop Support Us Blog Links Old Database Search Suppliers Contact About Us PFAF Newsletter *Email Address Stay informed about PFAFs progress, challenges and hopes by signing up for our free email ePost. 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