What is a Weed? Part 2: 'Weeds' by Richard Mabey

I would guess that most gardeners have heard a definition of a weed that goes something like: "a weed is a plant in the wrong place." Or Ralph Waldo Emerson's quote that a weed is "a plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered." And that is certainly the case, but Richard Mabey made me realize that the definition of weeds is much more (see my last Sunday essay on this book).  Plants go from being desired plants, to being a nuisance, to being a weed, and back to being desired again.  Weeds, using a favorite social work (my day job) term are a "social construction."  This means that the term weed is defined and created  by man, by the cultural, social, agricultural, medical, ornamental and artistic needs of human beings. A weed may simply be a plant that strays out of its proper biological or botanical home. But that means tulips are weeds here in Virginia.  So it must be more than this?  To quote Mabey: "The ornamental in one place becomes a malign invader in another.  What had been a crop or a medicine, centuries ago, falls from grace and metamorphoses into a forest outlaw. And just as readily the weed is domesticated into a food plant or a children's plaything or a cultural symbol....Of course, 'it all depends on what you mean by a weed'. The definition is the weed's cultural story." And a cultural story it is.

Some plants are labeled "weeds" because of their harmful effects on people (example: poison ivy), on the animals people depend on (example: 'cowsick,' a common name for datura, needs no further explanation) or the agricultural crop plants we needs (example: dodder sucks out the plants juices and weakens them). Some plants are labeled by people as unattractive, ugly or smelly. Some plants have uncomfortable resemblances to human anatomy (not that cute turnip that looks like it has a face, but that Voodoo lily that is shaped like a ...phallus). The operative word ina ll these descriptions is people: these plants are defined by us for our purposes: but of course they are, like most things. Mabey again: "they are plants which sabotage human plans."  So weed, like insect pest, is a social construction and has little to do with biology or nature, though most weeds seem to share some type of toughness in their DNA. One bottom line definition of weed?  One last Mabey quote "Weeds thrive in the company of humans."  They grow well whenever we disturb or destroy.  Cutting a forest for a field (or a garden) creates a haven for weeds.  Our penence is weeding.

pen·ance

  [pen-uh ns] 

noun

1.

a punishment undergone in token of penitence for sin.

2.

a penitential discipline imposed by church authority.

3.

a sacrament, as in the Roman Catholic Church, consisting in a confession of sin, made with sorrowand with the intention of amendment, followed by the forgiveness of the sin.

Origin: 
1250–1300; Middle English penaunce  < Anglo-French; Old French peneance  < Latin paenitentia penitence

Book Review (and the essay it inspired): Mabey, R. (2010). "Weeds: In Defense of Nature's Most Unloved Plants"

"Weeds" among my weeds!

Book Review (and the essay it inspired): Mabey, R. (2010). "Weeds: In Defense of Nature's Most Unloved Plants" NY: ECCO Paperback (Harper-Collins)

     I think about weeds altogether too much, and I have nightmares about them too.  As an avid gardener, whose desires are greater than the time and energy I have to give to them (like everyone else), I feel that a weedy bed is an eyesore, a slur and a commentary on my lazy immorality.  But Richard Mabey, author of the book that is the object of this review and essay, just might have me thinking differently about weeds...at least a little.

    Reading this book, and countless other garden books, I have settled on a central thesis:  that weeds share many of the qualities that we judge admirable in our fellow human beings.  And a few that we find....shall we say, less than desirable?

     Weeds are consummate survivors and we all love a survival story, right?  They arise from the school of hard knocks, often developing their toughness in difficult and demanding environments:  rocky, acid, alkaline, poor soil or scree; overly cold or hot temperatures; climate extremes; overly wet or arid conditions; and subject to repeated grazing, predation, fires or trampling. These conditions make for a strong species.

     Weed are vigorous.  They are strong, vibrant, and can grow with abandon.  They out-compete other plants.  Turn your back and, boom, the hill is covered in kudzu, your fence with bindweed. They win.  Everyone loves a winner?

     Weeds are survivors in other ways.  Some have seeds with incredibly long viability (the current record is about 2,000 years).  They can often still sprout after long decades of dormancy.  Others germinate incredibly fast: the record is the tumbleweed, which can germinate in 36 minutes.  Weed seeds outrace and outlast the competition.

     Weed seeds are inventive: they have many strategies for dispersal.  They can be sticky or gummy, thus adhering to you, me and other creatures, only to fall off later in a new spot.  They may have burrs or spikes to do the same trick (Velcro was inspired by a cockle burr).  Some actually shoot their seeds a distance, or have fluffy seed that floats far away.  Some seeds, encased in a tempting morsel, like a poison ivy berry, are impervious to digestive juices, and are pooped out, unharmed, with a little packet of...er...fertilizer.

    Weed roots are similarly inventive.  Some are incredibly vigorous, running under- or above-ground to greener pastures.  Others have deep tap roots, anchored roots, or stolons, that snap off when pulled, only to form a hydra-headed plant when it re-sprouts: think poke weed or the common dandelion.

    Some weeds are just plumb attractive.  We like them, we ignore them... the they rub their fornds together and take over.  Think of violets and purple loosestrife.

    And then there are the traits that would not do well in humans.  Some weeds (and other, more culturally valued plants) are allelopathic, that is, they are the poisoners of the plant world, pumping chemicals into the soil, subsances that kill or stunt other plants, but to which the host plant is immune.  Some smother other plants and kill by blocking light and water.  To the vigorous victor go the spoils.
Next time?  What is a weed anyway?  More than just "the wrong plant in the wrong place?"  We'll see!
Happy gardening! Happy New Year!