[sooyeah]

Can anyone give a complete definition? Because it appears to me at the moment to most gardeners it's "basically anything I don't want growing there".

[sooyeah]

So is no one prepared to venture even a guess?

[neilep]

Well, that's what I always thought the definition was......just a plant that one does not want growing in a specific place !.....though..I suppose you find it mostly attributed to dandelions, nettles and various grasses etc etc !!

That's the best I can do without googling it !

[blakestyger]

Yes - in one conservation group I worked with years ago we used to clear commons that had become overgrown because they weren't grazed any more. We were taking out silver birches and such that were referred to as 'weed trees' because they had self-set.

[rosalind dna]

Yes a weed is the plant that you don't want in your garden but then for some people roses can be weeds as can daisies etc.

Does that help a wee bit

[neilep]

Rosalind !

Do ewe remember Bill and Ben and Weed ?

 [ Invalid Attachment ]

[Karen W.]

Big Beautiful Women..LOL

[Monox D. I-Fly]

Big Beautiful Women..LOL

Just like you

[alancalverd]

Bertrand Russell defined dirt as "matter in the wrong place", so I guess the same criterion would apply to a weed. Time was that rhododendron was an exotic import to the UK, but most public gardens now regard it as an invasive pest.

[Pregily]

I know cannabis sometimes calls "weed"

[jimvideo]

For me a plant that kills the plants around for a short growing season is a weed. The dandelion is a good example of this, killing grass around it and spreading seeds.

[Bored chemist]

a plant that kills the plants around

How do dandelions kill grass?

[Monox D. I-Fly]

a plant that kills the plants around

How do dandelions kill grass?

By robbing them from their food source?

[Bored chemist]

For me a plant that kills the plants around for a short growing season is a weed. The dandelion is a good example of this, killing grass around it and spreading seeds.

Unless it isn't a weed, but the crop you are growing
https://www.tyrepress.com/2016/08/commercial-dandelion-production-the-goal-of-new-continental-lab/

[Pseudoscience-is-malarkey]

Why do some people refer to the smoking of cannabis as smoking "weed"?

[alancalverd]

Because a weed is, like, natural and countercultural, man, not like capitalist monoculture that destroys everything just to make, like, food and stuff. Or tobacco, 'cause that' like legal and taxed and conformist and stuff. Support the revolution. Grow your own. Stick it to the man. Hey, it's munchie time....

[Bored chemist]

Also, in many places it's very easy to grow.