Comment on Plant Slurs
tiramichu@sh.itjust.works 8 months ago
My definition: aggressive spread and resilience to removal.
Weeds that are pretty might get more of a pass than ones which are ugly, poisonous or thorny, but ultimately, even the most beautiful flower becomes a weed when it’s suddenly everywhere and you are fighting constantly to get rid of it.
aggressive spread and resilience to remove
Many would argue that mint is an herb. But if you ever had your garden invaded by mint, you’ll definitely classify them under weed.
Always plant mint in a pot. And if your neighbour has mint in their garden, you better have a 2m trench filled with concrete between their garden and yours.
Humans are a weed.
the fact it’s spreading means that it’s perfectly adapted for survival in that environment you created, so it’s perfect for that pace.
There is such a thing as exotic invasive species that destabilize the local ecosystem, though.
Yes, humans.
But I’m not just continuing a bit, humans are rally the source of a lot of invasive species introduced to local environments where otherwise that wouldn’t happen. And it mostly happened unintentionally, but intentionally too.
The dif I wanna point out is the scale & timeframes.
Eg naturally (by which I mean without human involvement) invasive species mostly happen really slowly, and from adjacent ecosystems (sure, there are exceptions, but it’s like spiders shooting butt-strings into the air & just by chance floating to Hawaii).
No weed is for plant. Fir animals its pest/vermin.
The average growth rate from 10,000 BCE to 1700 was just 0.04% per year.
Wow that’s crazy to me. I had always envisioned humans steadily spreading and growing constantly. I had no idea that we were basically treading water for so long.
Love the malthusianism. Why function on person or life quality when you can terminate your thoughts with ‘human bad’?
No need to ever fix or grow if just ‘human bad’.
My sounding port is DC 24V compatible, just hook me up, I have still decades of battery to offer!
squaresinger@lemmy.world 8 months ago
That fits to a lot of useful plants too. Strawberries, Brambles, Mint, just to name a few.
spankmonkey@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Yes. If you don’t have adequate containment then strawberries can absolutely be a weed.
A delicious weed, but still a weed.
squaresinger@lemmy.world 8 months ago
And that’s the actual definition of a weed: If you don’t want it there, it’s a weed. If you do, it’s not.