simisue

By simisue

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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