09/25/2026
Goldenrod: Beneficial Native, or Sneezenal Allergen?
Autumn is the time of year for many wonderous things in nature. Cooler temperatures...we hope! Autumn leaves, campfires, and the infamous pumpkin spice debate. (I love the aroma of cinnamon sticks, spice, cloves, and wet leaves on a damp forest floor). With this colorfully magical time of year, many of us become afflicted with sneezenal allergies. The culprit? It's gotta be that yellow w**d blooming in the fields, right? Goldenrod, that horrid plant that makes us sneeze, our eyes and noses run.
Not so fast.
Goldenrod fills the fields, roadsides, and meadows with the aptly named golden color that always brings me joy. I do not fear it, because Goldenrod is a beneficial pollinator plant, not the allergen-inducing monster it has become known for. The flower has unusually large grains of pollen--far too heavy to travel far in the breeze without the help of our bee buddies. The pollen is also sticky, designed to stick to bees and other pollinators, rather than travel through the air on the wind to assault our noses. With this paired design, Goldenrod is designed to depend on our pollinators, and its pollen is not otherwise airborne in significant amounts. In fact, well over 130 butterflies depend on this native wildflower as their host plant, as it is their primary food source in late summer-autumn, when not much else is in bloom. In fact, it provides crucial fats, proteins, and minerals for our honeybees, and bumblebees.
Birds such as goldfinches, nuthatches, and woodpeckers also depend on this plant as a late-season food source. Solidago/Goldenrod balances the ecosystem, feeds our wildlife, and yet, gets a bad rap for itchy, watery eyes. The true culprit is not, in fact, goldenrod, but a neighboring plant blooming at the same time...and probably in the same field. Ragw**d. A far less noticeable bloom, it hides among the goldenrod and produces enough allergens on the wind to send folks into a frenzy of sneezenal misery.
Traditionally, Goldenrod has been used in teas, tinctures, and poultices. In fact, after America's Boston Tea Party, the colonists drank native Goldenrod Tea instead of English Tea, as a direct protest against British Taxation.
The next time you see a golden field alight with bees, butterflies, and birds, stop and enjoy, do not destroy. Remember, native plants such as this one have played a large part in our history, but a far larger part of our future.
-Shayna Matthews, Lucky Nickel Nursery.
