It is all around you and quite visible, yet you don’t know it’s there. It is ubiquitous in the air that you breathe. In classical mythology it is the gods’ food and drink, and if consumed by mortals, one becomes immortal. It is also the name given to a festival celebrating Bacchus (Dionysus), god of the grape harvest, wine, and fertility.
It is also the name given to a classical libation used in Greek celebrations consisting of water, honey and all sorts of fruits. Homer often speaks of it. The same name is given to the mixture of pollen and nectar that worker bees use to feed the hive’s larvae. A fruit dessert made from bananas, oranges and coconut is bestowed with the name.
What name do all of these food-related share in common? Ambrosia. If of exquisite smell or taste, a substance may be called “ambrosial.” The fragrance and flavor of pineapple, for example, is historically described as ambrosial. Vanilla was once described as an “ambrosiac.” Ambrosia and its variations all originate from a Greek word root Latinized as ambrosios meaning “divine, lovely, pleasant, excellent.”
How do we connect the fabled food of immortals to something that is “all around you and quite visible, yet we don’t know it’s there, and it is ubiquitous in the air that you breathe?” As best I can tell, it was a cruel joke of the celebrated Linnaeus who in 1753 formally named a genus in the sunflower family mostly found in North America (with 22 species) as the genus Ambrosia.
Here in Carroll County we have three species of Ambrosia including A. artemisiifolia, A. bidentata, and A. trifida. You may know all of these by their collective common name – RAGWEED! Our three species are respectively known as common ragweed, lance-leaf ragweed and giant ragweed. What was Linnaeus thinking when he called ragweed Ambrosia?
Yes, for the last few weeks all three species have been blooming, and they have small, upside-down, inconspicuous tiny green flowers. Ragweeds are very common here. They are all around you. They are visible, you just don’t notice them. Their pollen is ubiquitous in the air with every breath and responsible for the majority of late summer and fall allergies.