TINY TUESDAY: Weed or Flower?
Every gardener has opinions about which plants are WEEDS.
A definition of a weed is "a plant in the wrong place." That explains why
people call clover, violets, & wild sorrel weeds if they are in their lawn, but
a gardener might disagree. Queen Anne's Lace is a very pretty, edible flowering plant that grows on the side of the road during the dog days of Summer. Chicory has a beautiful blue flower, grows nearby, & was used to make coffee during the US Civil War. They are sometimes called weeds, sometimes wildflowers.
There are strong opinions about all these plants & others: in fact, in my yesterdays blip, I mentioned buying nasturtiums. Several comments called them weeds, while other blip members love them.
This might add some clarity:
The word WEED has no botanical significance, but the word can be applied to plants that :
-grow & reproduce aggressively outside their native habitat
-grows in competition with cultivated plants
-disperse widely
-live in a variety of habitats
-succeed in disturbed ecosystems
-resist eradication when established
In my blip, the tiny, orange flower is very pretty but is definitely a weed, growing in dry, disturbed, neglected areas along the sidewalk.
The tiny, white flower belongs to a very fast growing, ground cover planted to replace lawn areas & on slopes. It is a horticultural plant, but it is a troublesome plant of the highest order. I would argue it is a weed of worst sort, because I have spent days trying to remove it, in our yard in Arizona.
I don't know its name but I can spot it at 100 yards.
So the answer to my question: both of these tiny, pretty flowers are weeds. Unless, of course, you disagree......
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