Weed

For other uses, see Weed (disambiguation). A weed is often an unwanted, usually wild or feral, plant. The notion of "weed" is almost entirely in the eye of the beholder. A weed in one situation might be a wildflower in another. For example, dandelions are widely viewed as weeds, but some consider them attractive flowers. They are also edible, their leaves and roots may be utilized for food or herbal medicine, they can break up hardpan for agriculture, and children commonly enjoy blowing their puffball seed heads, making them one of many potentially beneficial "weeds". Yet the caretaker of a lawn will generally regard the dandelion as a troublesome weed. It is typically necessary for a plant to grow easily and spread persistently to be considered a weed, because plants which need to be carefully nurtured are easily removed. Contents 1 Noxious weeds 2 Weed control 3 Some Examples 4 See also 5 External links Noxious weeds The term noxious weed is reserved for those that can be harmful to human, animal or property. In the United States, a noxious weed is defined legally as any plant designated by a Federal, State or county government as injurious to public health, agriculture, recreation, wildlife or property. Under United Kingdom law (Weeds Act 1959), a duty is placed on controllers of land to remove the following scheduled weeds from their land to prevent seeds contaminating their neighbours' land: broad leaf dock common ragwort creeping or field thistle curled dock spear thistle In addition, in the UK, the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 specifies control of certain plants such as giant hogweed or Japanese knotweed. Weed control Main article: Weed control In order to reduce weed growth, many weed control strategies have been developed. The most basic is ploughing, which cuts the roots of annual weeds. Today, chemical weed killers known as herbicides are widely used. Modern herbicides such as glyphosate are designed to leave no harmful residue in the soil, although the surfactants can be detrimental to watercourses. In domestic gardens, methods of weed control include covering an area of ground with several layers of wet newspaper or a black plastic sheet for several weeks. In the case of using wet newspaper, the multiple layers prevent light from reaching all plants beneath, which kills them. Saturating the newspaper with water daily speeds the decomposition of the dead plants. Any weed seeds that start to sprout because of the water will also be deprived of sunlight, be killed, and decompose. After several weeks, all germinating weed seeds present in the ground should be dead. Then the newspaper can be removed and the ground can be planted. The decomposed plants will help fertilize the plants or seeds planted later. In the case of using the black plastic sheet, the greenhouse effect is used to kill the plants beneath the sheet. A 5-10 cm layer of wood chip mulch on the ground will also prevent most weeds from sprouting. Also, gravel can be spread over the ground as an inorganic mulch. In agriculture, irrigation is sometimes used as a weed control measure such as in the case of paddy fields. Some Examples Here is a partial list of plants that are commonly considered weeds. Dandelion Creeping Charlie Burdock Broadleaf plantain Milk Thistle Sumac Red sorrel Winter Cress Ragweed Wild Carrot See also Herbicide List of beneficial weeds List of plants and fungi which damage buildings Pesticide Weedy species External links Weed Identification Guide from Virginia Tech (Southeastern United States) Search Term: "Weed" Categories: Botany | Agriculture | Lawn weeds | Lawn care

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