Talk:Ragweed

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fyi, it is a billion grains of pollen per season (vs. day, month, etc)

thanks Katarah

Contents 1 Insects 2 Unclear part 3 Spores 4 re: spores 5 Control and Eradication

[edit] Insects

I'm removing the sentence "They do not host many insects". They host plenty! see HOSTS - thats just Lepidoptera. Richard Barlow 14:12, 4 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Unclear part

The major allergen protein has been identified as Amb a 1, a 38 kDa nonglycosylated protein, as well other allergens such as profilin and Ca⁺⁺-binding proteins.

What does the second part of the sentence mean? I'm going to delete it for now. --Kjoonlee 14:40, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Spores

Somebody wrote that the plant has tremendous spore-producing capability. As flowering plants don't produce any spore, this sentence must be changed. But did they mean seed or what? Is spore a synonim of seed or something else in common, non-botanical english? Thanks Aelwyn 08:30, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] re: spores

Plants such as ragweed do not produce spores. The pollen is comparable to sperm, being produced on the male portion of the plant. It is the transported to the female portion, via wind or insects. After fertilization seeds develop. Spores are involved in mold reproduction. Mllmd 17:09, 1 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Control and Eradication

The act of manually uprooting ragweeds, sometimes shown in the media for public awareness and propaganda purposes, is best avoided. It is ineffective, and skin contact may cause the onset of full-blown hayfever symptoms in persons with latent ragweed hyper-sensitivity.

I am not sure I agree with this. If you are allergic, then no, you shouldn't handle them; however, ragweed is fairly easy to manually uproot, and if the a ragweed's root is uprooted below the soil, it won't regrow. Once it grows tall though, a good deal of strength is needed to uproot it, so it is best done early (usually before mid-August). I find that the weeds are actually rather fun to uproot - again, as long as you are not allergic. This is all from personal experience, but sites such as this Canadian city's, (see page 5 if you go visit that link), briefly mention that uprooting is effective if done early. Midtempo-abg 17:31, 13 August 2007 (UTC) []