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paintballimpact.com / Safety / Ragweed
Ragweed
Recreational paintball and woodsball are two paintball events that are played in the great outdoors. Because these games are played in the woods and in fields, players must look out for certain foliage that could aggravate allergies or cause an airway reaction. Some of these plants and irritants that you my be exposed to on the paintball field include poison oak, poison ivy, poison sumac, and ragweed. Ragweed is a fairly common growth that you may come across, and is pretty common in the United States.
Ragweed is from the sunflower family Asteracaea, and is a genus of flowering plants. Ragweed is a common plant and grows wildly in most regions of South America and North America. Ragweed is an especially hardy plant, known to grow in such locations as backyards, parks, fields, near bus terminals, and the woods of paintball fields. While most people use the single term ragweed as a general term, there are actually 30 species globe wide. Ragweed is very common inn appearance, and is not a desired food for any plant eater, so they grow unopposed. The 30 species of ragweed are very robust, they are know to grow near swamps, within thick brush, in the woods, and even in the desert. Some species of ragweed are very hardy, even in the most arid of deserts. Burrobush (Ambrosia dumasa) is one species of ragweed that grows in the Saharan Desert.
Ragweed is one of the most potent allergens in the United States. The ragweed plant is responsible for hundreds of millions of grains of pollen produced within a season, and the plant is wind-pollinated (anemophiles). Because ragweed is wind pollinated, its pollen travels far from its original source and it gets in the air, wreaking havoc on people's sinuses. The air-born ragweed allergen is the most common cause of hay fever, and it is the most notorious pollen allergen of all pollens. People with a history of allergies are particularly to the air born pollen that comes for m the ragweed plant. In the continental United States, the plant blooms at the end of July and remains in bloom until the mid-Fall. The plant is the most active producing pollen in the humid and rainy weather. The two most common ragweed culprits to give ragweed sufferers the most problems include psilostachya and Ambrosia artemisiifolia.
The ragweed most commonly seen or sneezed about, in the United States is the Ambrosia artemisiifolia. It is usually about 1 meter tall, There are other less common ragweed plants that can grow to 14 feet or higher, called Horseweed or Giant Ragweed. One possible side effect to the world's global warming may be the increased production of ragweed. The global warming data suggest that the incredible production of industrial fuels has let to an increased amount of CO2 in the atmosphere. This extra CO2 in the atmosphere has let to an increase in pollen production.
While the ragweed plant is the cause of much allergy suffering not all ragweed species is the cause of coughing and sneezing attacks. For instance, the ragweed goldenrod has pollen that travels via insects, and is harmless to people. Only the ragweed pollen traveling by air are irritants to human sinuses.
The paintball industry is very reputable, and field owners do everything to keep their fields free of plant irritants like poison ivy, poison sumac, and ragweed.
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