March 20, 2001

  • What the hell is a weed anyways?


    In the most general sense, a weed is any plant growing where it is unwanted. By this anthropocentric designation, even common lawn grass could be viewed as a weed, if it invades a garden or a flower spot. Similarly, corn might be considered a weed if it were found in a wheat crop, or a willow tree might be considered a weed if it were growing in a grove of apple trees.


    Most often, in a precise ecological sense, weeds are thought of as floral exotics (foreign plants) that have become acclimatized  among our native plants (many of which we now culturally misnomer as weeds). Many exotics are introduced intentionally by farmers and landscapers for their edible, medicinal, or ornamental qualities. Other exotics are sometimes introduced accidentally, often by means of incoming international ship ballast.


    So sweet corn is a weed to Indian corn, and ornamental bamboo is a weed in America wherever it grows, and since nothing is native to the turf of the internet, I guess we could all just be considered weeds stalking out of control!


     


    Hey! (Spring) Fever!

    It is the stirring up of pollen
    That the lawnmower men contrive.
    They won't let us have it any other way--
    How else could they survive?
    They're proposed as the solution
    (In quest of a problem?) And so
    Uniform, grass we grow.
    Yet lawnmower men
    Can get mowed down, too:
    I love my weedy knoll!

    --this, slightly revised, as a comment left on a post of Wildheart.



    btw, Agrochick78 reminded me in her comment about her feelings for weeds. What she was referring to was her gorgeously weedy back yard, here depicted in a borrowed (copped, lifted, cropped?) pic. What a weed-lover she is!

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