Johnny Appleseed and allergies

March 30, 2005 2:35 PM

I have a clear childhood memory of being taught that Johnny Appleseed spread ragweed or some other allergy-inducing "weed" in addition to apple trees. Does this ring a bell for anybody else?
posted by NortonDC to science & nature (11 comments total)

Nothing specific, but just about everyone in the early settlement of this hemisphere who traveled from one biome to another spread something. It's still happening -- which is why we have the Japanese shore crab and zebra mussel, among other recent immigrants -- but it was happening even in the earliest days, when colonists brought over animal and plant life both intentionally (pigs, grain, cattle, and other things they wished to cultivate) and unintentionally (brown rats, shipworms, kudzu, fire ants, starlings, grey squirrels, comb jellies, and other things that lodged or hid themselves in ship's timbers or equipage).
posted by Miko at 2:46 PM on March 30, 2005

You might be thinking of "Johnny Poppyseed" or someone like him who (as I understand it) was/is a mythical person throwing poppy seeds out their car windows in hopes to make the roadway a little prettier to look at.
posted by pwb503 at 3:01 PM on March 30, 2005

Just think about the logistics of lugging a bag of ragweed seeds along with a big sack of apple seeds all the way from central Massachusetts to the midwest. By foot.

And there was/is lots of orchards and cider mills in Littleton, Mass to provide him with seeds. The ragweed industry never got off the ground here, really.
posted by Mayor Curley at 3:17 PM on March 30, 2005

Thought a lot of the weeds are spread by the migrating birds flying over North America.
A movie claimed Johnny planted hemp next to the trees. Hemp was used in his time for making rope which today the US Navy still uses. As hemp is the closest natural fiber to steel’s strength.
posted by thomcatspike at 4:48 PM on March 30, 2005

Hah, I guess that would qualify as "weed."

The movie angle is intriguing to me. It's tickling something in the back of my brain.
posted by NortonDC at 5:17 PM on March 30, 2005

My Kentucky bootlegger heritage told me that Johnny sold apples for production of liquor. I've heard this from a few sources, which sort of parodies the happy songs. However, nothing heard that he introduced "the weed."
posted by sled at 6:32 PM on March 30, 2005

My Kentucky bootlegger heritage told me that Johnny sold apples for production of liquor.

Considering that apples grown from seeds are more than likely going to taste bad (they have to be grafted to get a good one) and there was no way to refrigerate the fruit, cider was what most of those apples became. This was all before pasteurization so the cider was hard. (I think Michael Pollan wrote about this in Bontany of desire.)
posted by Utilitaritron at 7:19 PM on March 30, 2005

He did write about it in Botany of Desire...which makes this a trifecta, the third time I've mentioned that book in one single day on MeFi -- and all three times with legitimate reason. It's a brilliant book, get it, read it.
posted by Miko at 8:38 PM on March 30, 2005

A biologist friend explained to me that eating apples are all clones. Johnny Appleseed is a myth. Sadly, even Heinlein echoed this myth in one of his books (can't recall which) when one new-planet-farmer gifted another with seeds from an apple.

Essentially supporting what Utilitaritron said.
posted by Goofyy at 9:25 PM on March 30, 2005

This Straight Dope article confirms a number of things that've been said so far, and also name checks The Botany of Desire. It also mentions his additionally bringing the seeds of "medicinal plants" but doesn't specify which ones.
posted by kimota at 6:51 AM on March 31, 2005

I'll third the Botany of Desire recommendation. I can even give you my copy, if you like! Johnny Appleseed did, indeed, travel the country planting orchards, and indeed they were for cider production, not eating. I don't remember reading anything about either ragweed or hemp, though.
posted by MrMoonPie at 8:02 AM on March 31, 2005