- Author: Lynn M. Sosnoskie
You just KNOW that some plants are considered weeds. Their common names give them away. They sound awful. Giant hogweed (Heracleum mantegazzianum). Ripgut brome (Bromus diandrus). Devil's claw (Proboscidea lutea). Smellmelon (Cucumis melo). Itchgrass (Rottboellia cochinchinensis). Dog-strangling vine (Cyanthum rossicum).
Others...well, others seem more benign. Even sweet. For Valentine's day I present to you nine weedy plants with lovely names. Enjoy...
1. Tree-of-Heaven (Ailanthus altissima). How celestial (Sigh...). How divine (Sigh...). How invasive (sigh...wait, what?). Tree-of-heaven is a deciduous tree, native...
- Author: Carl E. Bell
- Re-posted by: Gale Perez
My title is Regional Advisor – Invasive Plants, but I really think of myself as a Weed Scientist (which sometimes gets an interesting response from some people; those that likely have a smoking habit).
Weed is a simple word; everyone knows the word and has an idea of what it is referring to, right? It’s a plant that someone doesn’t like for some reason. Or perhaps it is a plant existing somewhere it doesn’t belong. The definition that the Weed Science Society of America (yes there really is a Weed Science Society of America, and no they do not do research on “WEED”) uses is, “any plant that is objectionable or...
- Author: Carl E. Bell
- Posted by: Gale Perez
- Author: Gale Perez
Carl Bell, University of California Cooperative Extension Regional Advisor on Invasive Plants, created a new blog on invasive plants in southern California. Here's a look at the blog:
- Author: Chris McDonald
With apologies to Deborah Rabinowitz. (Seven Forms of Rarity, 1981)
There are many different ways of being a pest. Some of the easiest ways are to use large bulldozers next to an office building, or have a computer virus send spam to every person on earth with an email address. How classifying pests relates to weed management is relatively straightforward.
What I specifically mean is how many different types of weeds are there? Not the individual species but the general ways of being a weed. There are surprisingly only a few ways a weed can be a pest. There are infinite details (similar to being infinitely pestered) to add to the general framework that in sum makes every species unique. The...
