What are Weeds?


The term weed is generally used for describing any wild plant, chiefly an unwanted plant that grows in cultivated ground where it contends with crop plants for soil nutrients and water.

In their natural surroundings, wildflowers and herbs not only are a source of beauty but have many useful functions. They make available food for insects and animals and improve the earth, make hard-packed soils loose, and aid in checking erosion.

Meddling with crops

  • Nonetheless, when they occupy cultivated areas they frequently meddle with the preferred crop by utilizing space, sunlight, moisture, and soil nutrients.
  • Weeds may as well shelter and multiply insect and fungus pests.

Garden weeds can be categorized in the following manner.


Annual weeds- These types of weeds germinate and develop in a single season and gradually disappear leaving a stock of seeds to grow in the subsequent season, for example Cleavers, Groundsel.

Biennial seeds- These types of weeds require a couple of growing seasons to mature sufficiently to yield seed, and then gradually disappear. In the initial season they sprout in the early parts of summer and the majority develops as a rosette of leaves at soil height, producing a long taproot. In the subsequent season they yield an erect stem which flowers and seeds. The garden weeds are without much difficulty eliminated in the first year by ripping them up or with the use of a contact herbicide at the seedling phase, but a complete or translocated agent have greater chances of succeeding. The plant may become perennial if the flowering stem is not allowed to grow and it is the production of seed which results in its gradual death. This can be observed with Thistles and Ragwort.

Perennial weeds are capable of producing a storage arrangement in their roots or stems and survive for a number of seasons. They cannot be removed easily as they adopt several methods to make certain their survival. First they can yield seeds which, are scattered in diverse ways to touch new ground in addition to the neighboring area. The other major advantage of these garden weeds is that they can revive if the top growth is eliminated or when the herbaceous perennials dwindle away naturally to endure unfavorable conditions for example winter frosts. They assume several forms such as usually it is underground as fleshy roots underground, stems or leaves, as far as bulbs are concerned. Hence while getting rid of these garden weeds the parts that are underground generally have to be eliminated or totally destroyed to avert re-growth. Several of them have roots or underground stems which crawl around, for example Bindweed, Ground-elder. Other garden weeds multiply with the help of rooting stems or runners, for example, Creeping Buttercup.