The distinctive odor of canyon ragweed (Ambrosia ambrosioides) is so Sonoran Desert. Hey, burs in your flip flops is a very Sonoran Desert thing too and some of those burs could be from kissing cousin Ambrosia deltoidea. Oh, I forgot to mention that canyon ragweed has medicinal uses, so you may want to look up its uses. So Sonoran Desert!
And the plant list that I was perusing and enjoying was for the Dunbar Springs Neighborhood in Tucson. The inclusion of canyon ragweed on the list made me want to move to that neighborhood.
I like the drawing of canyon ragweed by Lucretia Hamilton that I found in Benson and Darrow’s Trees and Shrubs of the Southwestern Deserts. You can see the staminate flowers at the top of the panicle with the pistillate flowers and burs below on that same stem. Pretty cool.
