Talk:Jemima weed

solidago species

As late as the early 1900s, inhabitants of Kingston, Rhode Island, called a species of solidago "Jemima weed", because it first appeared in that town about the time Jemima Wilkinson did. The only use I found is:

• 1975, Christian M McBurney, Kingston : a forgotten history, page 32:

  The Jemima Weed, which sprang up around South County about the time Mrs. Wilkinson did, was named after her.

I also found several mentions, such as these ones from when it was is use:

• 1903 April, Philip Kittredge Taylor, "Little Rest", in The New England Magazine, volume 28, number 2, page 139:

  A curious trace of her life at Kingston remains in the local name for a species of solidago, or September weed, which is commonly called “Jemima weed," because it made its first appearance there about the time she came to the neighborhood.

• 1876, Ebenezer Clapp (compiler), The Clapp Memorial: Record of the Clapp family in America, page 372:

  On certain portions of the pasture land travelled over, were noted a low, yellow-flowered wild plant, which we were told was called Jemima weed, and took its name from the celebrated Jemima Wilkinson, the popular belief being that it was unknown in this vicinity before the time of [Wilkinson's arrival].

- -sche (discuss) 22:18, 14 May 2019 (UTC)