This plant is growing on a hillside in partial shade beneath some celtis (Hackberry) trees and also along a stream beneath platanus (sycamore) trees. The growth habit reminds me of polymnia canadensis (bears foot) in the plant size, leaf size and many plants clustered together. It is different from bears foot in the way the leaves look, the sap smells different (also fragrant, but different) and bears foot is flowering now, this is not. There were some bears foot not too far away that were in full flower. The stem is very rough, and reminds me of the stem of a gourd vine. any ideas? I really started to think about what plants have not bloomed yet and are this big and realized that this might be Achoous gigantus (giant ragweed). I am not really sure as I thought that ragweed had only three lobes, not five. I did see one photo on the internet that did show 5 lobes, however.
thanks Ron. This is one of those cases where the scientific name makes NO SENSE. Why would you call Ragweed "Ambrosia"? That is almost as bad as calling Ailanthus Altissima "Tree of Heaven" rather than the more apt "Tree from Hell".
Eh, it makes some sense. The name Ambrosia was selected by Linnaeus out of respect for the ancient Greeks who used this name for the plant (e.g., Pliny, Dioscorides). A read through this PDF on Ambrosia maritima even provides an explanation that one scholar's interpretation of the word ambrosia in ancient Greek simply meant "fragrant". Hard to say what people meant by a word two millenia ago. Learned today that the word "nightmare" was used differently a century ago (specifically for sleep paralysis-type dreams) compared to its more general use today.
Jon45150, you'll be happy and amused to read this paragraph from the text Daniel cited: That document is titled "A Guide to Medicinal Plants in North Africa", so I assume that sentence concerns its existence there.
Actually I don't have allergies, so I don't have a problem with Ragweed - I just found the scientific name odd. When I saw it I immediately started looking for the historical native uses for the plant and did find that it was used for medicine and cordage in North America but nothing that would give a clue to how it got that name. The explanation Daniel gave was appreciated - mystery solved. I still like the scientific name I gave it in the initial post better.
And applied to a different species in the genus; no reason why A. maritima should share the less welcome characters of A. trifida.
This is why scientific names sometimes make as little sense as the common names. Why didn't they use "Ambrosia" for the species name rather than for the entire genus? Does the word "trifida" imply the leaves have three lobes? The photos I took show five lobes! Somebody either needs to rename the plant or cut off the two extra lobes from all the offending plants. Ironically I am more likely to remember the scientifc name for the plant now, regardless whether or not I agree with it.
triloba would suggest three lobes, trifida means divided in three, which looks to be a character associated with the leaf veins (though could be another character)
I'd agree it likely does mean the veins; the number of lobes is variable with the position on the plant (larger basal leaves have 5 lobes, smaller leaves higher on the stem just 3 lobes, and just one lobe even higher up). But the veins look to be consistently 3 (even on unlobed leaves), so Linnaeus would likely have chosen that more constant feature for naming it.
