Why goldenrod doesn't deserve its bad rap

Cooler weather has finally arrived here in the Midwest. It's time for trips to your favorite pumpkin patch, u-pick apple orchard and corn maze. Outdoor activities are glorious in a pair of jeans and a comfortable sweatshirt. It's my favorite time of year, and yet I cannot stop sneezing.

"It's the goldenrod," I hear time and again from well-meaning people when I mention my fall allergies. Though goldenrod is blooming in all its glory, it doesn't deserve the blame for fall allergies. Goldenrod does not cause hay fever. It just so happens that goldenrod blooms at the same time as ragweed. Now, that's a plant name my congested angst can get behind. Ragweed. It even sounds guilty.

Ragweed is wind-pollinated, and according to the National Wildlife Federation, "A single plant can propel as many as 1 billion irritating pollen grains."

Both ragweed and goldenrod are members of the daisy family and look somewhat similar, but ragweed is green, and goldenrod is the one with bright yellow blossoms. It's understandable when you look at the plants side by side why one would think to blame the goldenrod. Such bountiful blossoms must produce ample pollen to antagonize the immune system. What most people don't realize, though, is that goldenrod relies completely on animal pollinators. Their pollen is too heavy for the wind to carry. So that's not goldenrod pollen in your itchy eyes and nose. Unless you've also got a bee in there.

I bet you can guess where I'm going with this. Yes, with more than 100 species of goldenrod native to North America, this makes them super important to our pollinators during the fall. Goldenrod blooms attract pollinators with their sweet, nutritious nectar. While they're sipping delicious nectar, they get messy with pollen to transfer to other nearby blossoms. That's the whole goal. Ragweed, on the other hand, does not produce nectar. Its pollen is high in protein and is still beneficial to bees, but the wind does a fine job pollinating the plant on its own.

Though a native plant, scientists believe that ragweed spread westward quickly as colonizers migrated, breaking up the land as they went. The abundant pollen lands in bogs and sinks down to the sediment. Palynologists (those who study pollen and spores) test sediment and can actually use the abundance of ragweed pollen to accurately understand the settlement behaviors of colonists.

Meanwhile, benign goldenrod is what University of Delaware entomologist Doug Tallamy calls a "keystone plant" for your landscape. Goldenrod is one of those plants that helps "form the backbone of local ecosystems, particularly in terms of producing the food that fuels insects."

More than 100 butterfly and moth species along with native bee species feed specifically on goldenrod. Also, the beloved monarch butterfly needs its nectar to fuel their long journeys southward. Birds, too, love goldenrod seeds once the blooms are spent.

Gardeners and allergy sufferers need to put the blame where it belongs -- squarely with ragweed and the colonizers that helped it run rampant. Goldenrod is, well ... golden. Plant it; nurture it; and enjoy its beautiful blooms all autumn long.