What classifies a plant as either a weed or a flower?

Question

I mean, I know it cannot simply be the look of the plant as there are some pretty weeds out there as well. So what is the botanist answer of the difference between the two?

Answer 1

Weed is a non-scientific term and it is NOT a classification Category.


''A weed; in a general sense is a plant, usually wild or feral, that is considered by the speaker to be a nuisance in a garden, lawn, or other agricultural development.''

More specifically, the term is often used to describe plants that grow and reproduce aggressively.

Weeds may be unwanted because they are unsightly, or because they limit the growth of other plants by blocking light or using up nutrients from the soil.

They also can harbor and spread plant pathogens that can infect and degrade the quality of crop or horticultural plants.

The term weed in its general sense is a subjective one, without any classification value, since a weed is not a weed when growing where it belongs or is wanted.

Indeed, a number of "weeds" have been used in gardens or other cultivated-plant settings.

An example is the corncockle, Agrostemma, which was a common field weed exported from Europe along with wheat, but now is a garden plant.

Weedy plants generally share similar adaptations that give them advantages and allow them to proliferate in disturbed environments whose soil or natural vegetative cover has been damaged.

Naturally occurring disturbed environments include dunes and other windswept areas with shifting soils, alluvial flood plains, river banks and deltas, and areas that are often burned.

Since human agricultural practices often mimic the natural environments in which weedy species have evolved, weeds have adapted to grow and proliferate in human-disturbed areas such as agricultural fields, lawns, roadsides, and construction sites.

The weedy nature of these species often gives them an advantage over more desirable crop species because they tend to grow quickly and reproduce quickly, have seeds that persist in the soil seed bank for many years, or have short lifespans with multiple generations in the same growing season.

Perennial weeds often have underground stems that spread out under the soil surface.

A number of weedy species have developed chemical means to prevent the germination or growth of neighboring plants.

Weeds and human civilization have a long history. Often their seeds are collected and transported with crops after the harvesting of grains, so that many of these weed species have moved out of their natural geographic locations and have spread around the world with humans.

Many modern species of domesticated flower actually originated as weeds in cultivated fields.

The most attractive weeds were the ones least likely to be disturbed by the farmers, and so this selection process produced, over thousands of years, increasingly attractive plants, until they finally attracted conscious domestication.

Not all weeds have the same ability to damage crops and horticultural plants.

Some have been classified as noxious weeds because if left unchecked, they often dominate the environment where crop plants are to be grown.

They are often foreign species mistakenly or accidentally imported into a region where there are few animals or plants to control their population and spread.

With the conversion of land to agriculture and distribution of food crops from other parts of the world, these weeds have ideal areas for growth and reproduction, with humans being the vector of transport and the producer of disturbed environments for their growth.

Examples of plants that are normally considered as WEEDS.
All these are flowering plants !!!

1 )Broadleaf plantain - perennial, spreads by seeds that persist in the soil for many years
2 )Burdock - biennial , 3 )Creeping Charlie - perennial, fast-spreading plants with long creeping stems.
4 )Dandelion - biennial, wind-spread, fast-growing, and drought-tolerant
5 ) Goldenrod - perennial ( it has attractive flowers ,grown in gardens )
6 )Kudzu - perennial , 7 ) Leafy spurge - perennial, with underground stems
8) Milk thistle - annual or biennial ,
9 )Poison ivy - perennial
10 )Ragweed - annual
11 )Sorrel - annual
12 )Sumac - woody perennial
13 )Wild carrot - biennial
14 ) Wood sorrel - perennial

Answer 2

Well, to me the definition of a weed is a plant that is unwanted. So one person's weed is another's wanted plant. So no one intentionally plants what they consider to be a weed, except perhaps in the name of science. But I plant lots of things that some others would consider to be weeds. For instance I plant milkweed for monarch caterpillars to eat, but most would think of milkweed as a weed. And a lot of "weeds" have incredible medicinal properties. And the most beautiful flower, growing where it will choke out your vegetables, say, might be unwanted, and thus a weed. So it is just a matter of attitude. To bring it around to adoption, my job as an adoptive parent is to love and nurture my daughter to be the best plant she can be -- whatever plant she already was when she came to me. I should not try to make her into a certain type of flower that I really like, but instead the very best of whatever "species" she already is.

Answer 3

a weed is something you don't want in your garden/farm etc.
In some places a weed (and this is the same for some pests too) are considered garden plants, while in another area they are a weed.
Here in New Zealand a lot of plants (and animals) were brought from mother Enlgand to make people feel more at home but they had terrible impacts here.
I know when I was growing up we had a jasmine vine in our garden, but up the top of the North Island its a weed, Lupins were brought to liven up gardens but now is a weed clogging up braided riverbeds, gorse was broght to make feneces, but is a pretty horrible weed now..the list goes on...
If its useful to people its a plant/flower etc, if its a problem it becomes a weed.

Answer 4

No.
A flower is the sexual body of any plant in the angiosperm family. Angiosperm means flowering plant.
Commonly used, any plant which is appreciated for its flower is "a flower."

A "weed" is a non-technical term describing any plant that is not wanted (by humans) where it is currently found.
ex: A corn plant in my grandmother's flowerbed is a weed.
My grandmother's purslane in a corn field is a weed.

The term "weed" is completely subjective. If you want more technical terms look up native, naturalized, exotic, alien, invasive, etc. But keep in mind that different researchers use the various terms slightly differently.

Answer 5

It's a matter of opinion and use. A dandelion is a weed in lawns, but if one's livelihood is from dandelion wine or detox tea, then dandelion is a crop. Around here, farmers rotate crops and sometimes we'll see a few corn plants in a new soy field. The corn is a crop, but not in the soy field. There, it's a weed

Answer 6

Technically they are both flowering plants. I think that the plants that aren't what you're trying to grow and are stealing the other plants water and mineral supplies are considered weeds. Weed isn't really a scientific term.

Answer 7

Most of the plants called weeds look “weedy.” They are generally unglamorous in appearance because of their tiny flowers and unattractive foliage. A few, such as Morning-glories and Blackeyed-Susans, do have showy blossoms.

The usual definition of a weed as “a plant out of place” reflects human bias. Actually, pest plants are out of place only in terms of man’s purposes. In nature’s scheme, they often serve useful functions, and judging by their success in wide-open competition with other plants, they are anything but out of place.

An important factor contributing to the widespread abundance of weeds is their adaptability to diverse and adverse circumstances. Horseweeds that sometimes grow ten feet tall in favorable environment can also succeed in hard, dry soil, where plants only a few inches high may produce a crop of seeds. Other weed species can thrive even in crevices of concrete. What a contrast to our pampered cultivated plants!

Another secret of the success of weeds is their effective means of reproduction. Many of them bear tremendous quantities of seeds. Some species of Pigweed commonly yield 100,000 or more seeds per plant. Furthermore, some weeds have remarkable devices for assuring widespread dispersal of their seeds. They either float in the slightest breeze by means of tiny, feathery parachutes or attach to clothing, fur, or wool by hooks, burs, or cleavers. Seeds of still others can remain dormant for many years until favorable conditions return.

In addition, some species can multiply by vegetative means as well as by seeds. Purslane, common in gardens and lawns, not only produces many seeds but also can start new plants readily from broken-off bits of stems that have dried for a week or two. Bermuda grass rootstocks that have been cut off and dried can still regenerate. Chopping up the plant often simply multiplies it.

Answer 8

A weed is any plant growing where it is not intended. There are noxious weed classifications where the government will declare certain plants as weeds so that their control can be enforced.

Answer 9

Pollen?

Answer 10

I think they are called dandelions