Useful Weeds for Needs

Spray the weeds?
    'Weed' is a state of mind, a plant looking for a use. Cultivated plants can be viewed simply as weeds with some of the wildness bred out of them. Weeds are not always pests. They can be beautiful, tasty and useful. What we often think of as prickly, poisonous weeds are sometimes there because of human land use practices such as slash & burn, overgrazing. They may be part of the habitat healing process.  Check out Ryan's yard of weeds. What may seem like a cute little flower in small numbers in the woods may not seem quite so cute in large numbers when they aggressively take over a garden or farm, unless they have economic value. Even if you buy the idea that some wild plants are more valuable than others, the distinction quickly becomes uncertain. Are violets weeds? Jack in the pulpits? Asters? Buttercups? Columbines? Wintergreen?

   Huge sums of money are spent on weed killer herbicides (most of which harm the environment) and weed whackers. Tax dollars are spent on introducing bugs for biological control of a few plants instead of devising new uses for those 'nuisances'. Bio-control success stories are touted, yet consider who they are for, who benefits? Imagine going with nature a little more and spending less energy fighting nature. Imagine people harvesting these as 'medicinal herbs' instead of spraying those 'noxious weeds' with herbicides.  A good case in point is the St. John's Wort story. It was introduced to Australia and California from Europe in the 1800's as a medicinal plant. It grew well in overgrazed pastures leading to ranchers prevailing upon the federal government to pay for a control program. A mite was introduced and now limits the spread. And now this same plant is one of the top selling medicinal herbs of commerce. Plants that are considered as weeds deserve further scientific investigation before tax dollars are spent on control.

   There is a change in attitude underway. Along the highways of America mowed grass is being replaced by wild plants (see NY Times story). The battle with weeds is one we will never win because they are strong and adaptable. Give away your week killer and the weed whacker and join the weeds for needs revolution.

   Weeds have many uses and may be harvested instead of sprayed by herbicides. Until I can get around to a more thorough compendium on this topic, here are preformatted links to Medline and web literature to help you find uses and to find the plants.

Some 'weed' oriented sites to inspire more research into their uses:   
USDAaphis - USDAnoxious - USDAinvasive - NPSalien - NPSalien - BLM -  CalDFA - Calweed - noxioustimes - NatureConservancy/ UCDavis - NatureConserv - NYBGweeds - British Columbia - Sasketchuan  - Arizona - Colorado - Colo Weed Mgt Assn - Connecticut - Hawaii - IdahoMontana  - Illinois - Indiana  - Iowa - Iowa - NJRutgers  - NY - Ohio - Oregon - Utah - WSU - King County, Wa - Wyoming - World - World - Weed o' Week - Cropnet - merriweb - weedsmart - garden invaders - globalWeeds - Coomb - forestryimages - Fletcher - Australia - googleweedID - invasiveguide - Finneyfrock - Francis -

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