Question

quote from "Weeds: In Defense of Nature's Most Unloved Plants" by Richard Mabey -

"Ralph Waldo Emerson opted for usefulness, and said that a weed was simply ‘a plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered’."

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MikeInBatonRouge 8

Answer 1

Weed is in the eye of the beholder. Joe Pye weed is the best habitat for butterfly but is mowed off as useless and invasive.

Answer 2

Thanks! I'll check it out

Answer 3

From the same book, ..."Weeds: In Defense of Nature's Most Unloved Plants" by Richard Mabey -

"RHS’s hauteur is nothing compared to the high puritan criteria applied in Houston, Texas. In that space-age city, by-laws have made illegal ‘the existence of weeds, brush, rubbish and all other objectionable, unsightly and unsanitary matter of whatever nature covering or partly covering the surface of any lots or parcels of real estate’. In this litany of dereliction weeds are defined as ‘any uncultivated vegetable growth taller than nine inches’ – which makes about two-thirds of the entire United States’ indigenous flora illegal in a Houston yard. The US Department of Agriculture, struggling to find some unifying principle behind its own pragmatic blacklists, admits that ‘over 50 percent of our flora is made up of species that are considered undesirable by some segment of our society’."
Way to go, America! ...not. Hard to imagine that this could be enforced. But the shear balls it takes to pass such regulation is dismaying.

Answer 4

The HOA and I disagree , as to what constitutes a weed . I love seeing the clover in my yard , and where I'm from , crab grass is considered a weed . Here , crabgrass is considered a lawn , while clover , which contributes nitrogen to the soil , and farmers consider a cash crop , is considered a weed in the lawn.

Answer 5

I just started this book on kindle. So far pretty interesting musings on weeds and the subjectiveness and fickleness of human tastes.


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