Current use:

Goldenrod is still used for tea and as an herbal remedy although not to the extent that it was utilized by traditional cultures. Goldenrod is also considered a high-quality cut flower and used as a filler for flower arrangements. Cut goldenrod blooms can last for over week. Some beekeepers in the US midwest attest that the nectar from the combination of goldenrods and asters is the very best and very sweetest of any produced during the year (Helzer, 2010, comments).

Stuff Almost Nobody Knows:

(for the perpetually curious)

Some coincidences are so incredible that it’s difficult to believe they are simply coincidence.

Such is the case when a natural poison is found growing right near a natural antidote. Some examples of this are known and it seems likely there are others not yet identified. For example, in the jungles of southern Mexico and central America grows a tree called the metopium brownei, known locally as chechém or black-sap poisonwood, which causes a blistering rash upon contact with skin. Often growing nearby is a tree called Bursera simaruba, known by locals as chaka, a bioactive species which, when processed correctly, acts as an antidote to chechém (Peck, 2016). Poison ivy is a common troublemaker in eastern North American but is, remarkably, often found growing with spotted jewelweed, an annual plant with orange-gold flowers which the Native Americans used as a poison ivy remedy, a remedy which many modern outdoors enthusiasts also testify is effective. The death-cap mushroom, native to Eurasia, has a recently discovered natural antidote derived from silybum marianum, a flower with an overlapping native range (Peck, 2016).

Goldenrod is a partner in a slightly less dramatic co-located poison / antidote dynamic. The surprise to many is that the goldenrod is the antidote in this relationship, not the poison. Goldenrod is not the significant source of allergies that many in North America believe it to be; even if someone were to be allergic to goldenrod pollen, they would be unlikely to inhale the relatively heavy particles that tend to be transported by pollinators, not wind. Much more likely to be responsible for the onset of hay fever-like symptoms is ragweed, which, in the eastern US, tends to grow where goldenrod grows. Ragweed pollen, a common allergen, is a light, wind-transported pollen. Coincidentally, some traditional medicinal applications of goldenrod target common allergy symptoms, such as goldenrod as a decongestant or goldenrod for upper respiratory system support (Blankespoor, 2017).

We don’t claim exceptional insight into whether the occasional geographic overlap of plant-delivered sting and relief is a function of coincidence, design, obscure biology or something else. We do suggest that the enigmatic goldenrod is a fitting reminder that we don’t know as much as we think we do. In 2002, a term, the “illusion of explanatory depth”, was coined by psychology professor Frank Keil and his graduate student Leonid Rozenblit to explain the fact that most people feel they understand the world in far greater detail, coherence, and depth than they really do. They proved this was true by asking people whether they understood common things, like a cell phone or a sewing machine, and then upon confirmation of understanding, asking those same people explain exactly how these common things work. Most failed.

We have failed to definitely characterize goldenrod as friend or foe, medicine, placebo or allergen, invasive or supportive. We don’t know if there is any significance associated with its tendency to co-locate with ragweed. In some cases, we can’t even decide whether some varieties of goldenrod should be even considered members of genus Solidago. Our consensus level of explanatory depth with respect to goldenrod seems astonishingly shallow. There seems to be agreement that the plant itself is a tall herbaceous perennial. What we don’t seem to understand is how goldenrod fits into a bigger picture. One Native American use of goldenrod was as “gambling medicine” (Moerman, 2009); perhaps we can use goldenrod now as a ward against unwarranted overconfidence in the depth of our own understanding.