The use of Chinese herb mugwort is very extensive. It is not only used during the Dragon Boat Festival to ward off evil spirits and dispel negative energy, but it can also be used for bathing to remove dampness. However, many people easily mistake it for the toxic herb ragweed. Traditional Chinese medicine believes that ragweed is effective in treating injuries, muscle contraction, and pain. Let's learn about ragweed and mugwort together with the help of the editor below!
【How to distinguish genuine mugwort?】
1. Observe the shape: The back of the mugwort leaves has a grayish-white short fuzz, and the leaves are alternate on the whole plant. On the other hand, the back of the ragweed leaves is green.
2. Smell the odor: When sniffing the mugwort branches and leaves, there is a distinctive strong aroma of mugwort, while ragweed has a repulsive grassy odor. Ragweed is easily confused with mugwort, but ragweed has certain hazards to cultivated plants, wild plants, and human health.
It is understood that ragweed is highly invasive and can harm crops such as chrysanthemums and grasses. It releases various substances that inhibit the normal growth and development of cultivated and wild plants.
Its pollen contains allergenic substances, which can cause "hay fever" that is harmful to human health. Symptoms can range from coughing and wheezing to severe cases of emphysema, even life-threatening.
3. "Cut the grass" but not "remove the root": This is not a method to distinguish mugwort from ragweed, but it is crucial to ensure the quantity of genuine mugwort. Some people tend to pull out the mugwort together with the roots, which further reduces the already scarce mugwort around Harbin and provides ample opportunity for the growth of ragweed. It is recommended to use tools for harvesting mugwort instead of brutally "cutting the grass and removing the root".
【Morphological characteristics of ragweed】
Ragweed is an annual herbaceous plant that grows 20-150 cm tall. The stem is erect with conical branches, and it is ridged and covered with sparse rough hairs. The lower leaves are opposite, with short petioles, bipinnately divided, and the lobes are narrow and elongated, with obvious midribs. The upper surface is dark green, with fine short appressed hairs or nearly hairless, while the back is grayish-green and covered with dense rough hairs. The upper leaves are alternate and sessile, bipinnately divided.
The male head inflorescence is hemispherical or ovate, with a diameter of 4-5 mm and a short peduncle. It hangs down and densely forms a corymb at the top of the branch. The involucre is broadly hemispherical or disc-shaped, and the involucral bracts are completely fused without ribs, with wavy rounded teeth on the edge, and slightly rough appressed hairs. The receptacle has bristle-like scales. Each head inflorescence has 10-15 sterile florets. The corolla is pale yellow, 2 mm long, with a short tubular portion and a bell-shaped upper portion with wide lobes. The anthers are oval-shaped, and the style does not divide, but the top swells into a brush-like structure.
The female head inflorescence is without a peduncle, borne singly in the axil of the lower leaves or clustered in 2-3 groups, and it has one fertile female flower with a closed involucre. The involucre is inverted ovate or oblong-ovate, 4-5 mm long and about 2 mm wide, with a conical mouth enveloping the style, and 4-6 spines below the top, slightly rough appressed hairs. The style is deeply divided into two filaments, which extend out of the mouth of the involucre.
The achene is inverted ovate, hairless, hidden in the hard involucre. It flowers from August to September and fruits from September to October.
Ragweed image
Mugwort image
