I know where you are coming from, but as a German calling someone „Unkraut“ has a very dehumanizing sound and was used by nazis to classify people they wanted to murder. Example: deutsche-digitale-bibliothek.de/…/6SLYFZ3ZSAWYUJX…
„However, it would have to become the task of the Inner Mission… to clear God’s field of this Unkraut“: women as victims of forced serialisation and “euthanasia” under National Socialism
Herb is ört in Swedish. Gräs is better translated as grass, so ogräs is non-grass. This also enables a funny way to insult someone’s lawn – since lawn is gräsmatta (grass carpet) – by calling it an ogräsmatta.
I think this is something I might be too French-Canadian to understand, here we’d call it “pot” or perhaps “herbe”, both of which don’t translate to “bad grass”.
Unless overseas “herbe” translates to weed. We use it pretty interchangeably with “gazon” (which just means grass)
BastingChemina@slrpnk.net
on 11 Jul 23:26
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“Mauvaises herbes” this is the word I was thinking about.
fushuan@lemmy.blahaj.zone
on 11 Jul 09:27
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Mine translates to “bad grass” in both my mother languages.
In Swedish the prefix for bad stuff is the same as the prefix for not or un-. So a monster is a not-animal and a weed is ungrass. Which is especially interesting to me because that same prefix (o) is for better versions of things in Japanese.
e: This got me thinking about “plant,” and I realized it’s literally the verb to plant. In Swedish it’s a growth, or thing that grew. Japanese and Chinese: planted thing. Spanish is also the same as the verb. I feel kinda bad we mostly talk about them in terms of farming them rather than giving them a proper name. Like if they get sentient someday, plant will probably be considered a slur.
NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io
on 11 Jul 12:11
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that same prefix (o) is for better versions of things in Japanese.
Puts on nerd glasses well ackshually it's used to elevate the status of something, such as with people, objects or other entities of social or religious significance (for example other people's family members in a polite situation). It's more honored than better.
I don’t love the honor translation partially because it’s been used in racist caricature, but also because it’s often inaccurate. Like you might say ohana because you’re in an extremely formal interaction, or because you want to sound poetic or whatever, but you’re not actually saying “honorable flowers” usually. You can mean that though. I feel like it’s too context-sensitive and culturally nuanced for simple translation.
NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io
on 12 Jul 01:23
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Like you might say ohana because you're in an extremely formal interaction, or because you want to sound poetic or whatever, but you're not actually saying "honorable flowers" usually.
I think the most common instance would be simply wanting to sound cute.
Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de
on 11 Jul 08:34
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weeds are plants with the capacity for spite
salacious_coaster@infosec.pub
on 11 Jul 06:31
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Well, “weed” can be a legal definition. A lot of governments have a noxious weed list that either provides for consequences if you suffer that plant on your property, or just an excuse for the government to come on to your property to kill the weeds for you. For instance, Russian Olive is legally a “kill on sight” invasive plant in my area.
Tollana1234567@lemmy.today
on 11 Jul 06:57
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A guest on Space Ghost Coast to Coast put it best. “A plant out of place” is a weed, like an insect out of place is a pest. It’s a definition that centers ecology and targets invasive species.
tiramichu@sh.itjust.works
on 11 Jul 07:08
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My definition: aggressive spread and resilience to removal.
Plants 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.
Evil_Shrubbery@lemmy.zip
on 11 Jul 08:24
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aggressive spread and resilience to removal
Humans are a weed.
becomes a weed when it’s suddenly everywhere and you are fighting constantly to get rid of it
(Humans! :))
But you are fighting constantly to get rid of it bcs of some arbitrary goals. And 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.
And don’t forget that shown is just the last couple of thousand of years - there are 4 more millions of years prior to this of slow growth (and some collapses) but it wouldn’t even register on such a chart.
Ugh, I guess this is far off topic.
outhouseperilous@lemmy.dbzer0.com
on 11 Jul 12:48
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Love the malthusianism. Why focus on person or life quality when you can terminate your thoughts with ‘human bad’?
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.
Yeah, 4 million years of various “humanoid” species cohabiting & barely making it through (one big event wiping out the whole species - that’s why we have such a shallow gene pool & all look “identical” relative to difs in other species).
But the rapid growth was always unsustainable, the gens lived on natural wealth that they just took out of (into?) the economy way quicker than the replenishing cycle. But the difference between a million and a billon is unimaginable, that’s why we can now witness the collapse (mass extinction event) within a generation.
Yes, humans.
We destabilised to fairly high extend literally all the ecosystems (unless you count battery cage farming as an (artificial) ecosystem, that one boomed, agricultural monocultures too).
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). Bcs ecosystems overlap, there is no strict boundary for the species.
And that is what always happened throughout history, it’s part of evolution (ever fauna actively transferring various species to new environments).
GreenMartian@lemmy.dbzer0.com
on 11 Jul 10:16
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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.
I love stumbling across random information like this. I had no idea that mint spread so aggressively - and will likely never need this information. But it’s fun to learn.
Not only does it spread aggressively through its roots, but it also grafts onto almost anything. The roots connect to other plants and create new hybrid mints.
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.
Evil_Shrubbery@lemmy.zip
on 11 Jul 08:16
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Yes, this was a real educational technicality fuckup, it seemed sus but everyone was like “don’t you know it’s a weed”? - “No, no I do not. And you don’t even have a field to worry abut crop yields, it’s just a lawn & now there is a flower in it, wtf.”
I know it’s economy (or even sociology), but it’s too close to biology not to directly explain it properly.
SwampYankee@feddit.online
on 11 Jul 10:52
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I'll have you know my lawn is a crop and it yields social status.
nathanjent@programming.dev
on 11 Jul 16:38
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I prefer the bees in my clover over conforming to some neighborhood standards.
My garden is all weeds. Tons of different plants, but some dominate in certain seasons, growing like 5 feet high. Seems to have avoided anything nasty though, no thistles, nettles or brambles.
My neighbour’s garden is a thin layer of plastic astroturf. And they let a dog run about on it. Good luck getting dog diarrhoea out of that.
I know which I prefer.
QuincyPeck@lemmy.world
on 11 Jul 10:39
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I also prefer your dumb neighbor having diarrhea stained astroturf.
I wish someone had warned me before No Mow May about brambles.
1 shoulder injury and a year later I need chainmail gloves and a fucking flamethrower. I fill my green bin with brambles, by the time it’s picked up they’ve grown back.
The main root is under a shed. I don’t know how to eliminate it.
I don’t know if you’re opposed to herbicide, but triclopyr will kill it. You can get triclopyr salt (water based) and apply it to the freshly cut stump surface (within moments of cutting), or triclopyr ester (oil based) and apply it to the outside of the plant close to the base, no cutting required. Both of these will kill the root. Otherwise just keep cutting and eventually you will exhaust the root.
Not sure about elsewhere, but in the USA you can typically buy the water-based triclopyr salt in a small bottle with a brush attached to the cap. This is in pretty much any garden store. Even though you have to cut the plant first I think this is the best form for just a few plants.
The worst I had to deal with was pampas grass, which appears to be a plant made of actual swords.
I spent three days hacking at it in a coat so I wouldn’t get shredded. When I finally cut the root bulb out it was a cube of wood a foot across. I could barely lift it out, I had to roll it to the bin.
Pampas grass is actually super invasive in certain areas (like all of California).
TheRealKuni@lemmy.world
on 11 Jul 12:02
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I don’t know if this will work on brambles, but for pesky root systems I’ve had luck with Bonide’s Stump and Vine killer. You cut near the base of one of them, then paint the exposed stem with this stuff. It absorbs into the root system and kills all of it. Works great on pokeweed.
Edit: Turns out this is just a specific brand of triclopyr herbicide like MoonMelon mentioned. So here’s another recommendation for triclopyr!
Brambles can be valuable plants, providing shelter and food for many small animals and tasty blackberries for people. But, if they become noxious, they can spread quickly and choke out all other plants. They spread by rooting from the plant tips and even if you dig up the root system, any little piece of root can and will re-root and grow a new plant.
Either move the shed to get at it - all of it - or you honestly may need to resort to herbicide to kill it. It sounds like you have fought them mechanically and are losing the war. I would recommend consulting your local garden center for the best herbicide to apply to kill them.
Yeah, it’s a shame to get rid of it, I’m usually happy to let it go crazy for a few months so the bees and birds have their way. But I learned about bramble growth the hard way. Didn’t know they were vibes or they spread from the tips. Thought I could just chip the main stem and it wouldn’t be a big deal. But it’s had 2 summers now and when I cut the grass (or tried to) surprise!
The floor is bramble vines too. Like something out of a horror film, just kept pulling them up, ruined 2 pairs of gloves and 2 sets of secateurs , it’s only a tiny garden! (And the first sets were never up to the task)
Luckily I have some other bushes and ferns for stuff to live in but I just don’t have time to stay on top of the mechanical side to control it.
spankmonkey@lemmy.world
on 11 Jul 12:51
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If you are happy with the plants being where they are then they aren’t weeds. The main problem is companies that sell plant killing chemicals and services treat the word ‘weed’ as if it had a universal meaning.
GrantUsEyes@lemmy.zip
on 11 Jul 12:53
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brambles
Don’t know what plant it is, but what a great word.
But now I see that in some countries is synonymous with mala hierba, I didn’t know that.
swampdownloader@lemmy.dbzer0.com
on 12 Jul 03:00
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Some countries in Latin America call it maleza and others do not
LanguageIsCool@lemmy.world
on 12 Jul 00:23
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Isn’t hierba buena mint? Everything else must be hierba neutra then
callouscomic@lemmy.zip
on 11 Jul 10:19
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Then we go and define things as “invasive” as if the world hasn’t been ever-changing for billions of years. As if we know better and need an environment to remain exactly as we found it, forever. As if nature won’t just fucking figure it out.
It definitely counts as invasive if we put it there though. I don’t see rabbits swimming to Australia.
Whats_your_reasoning@lemmy.world
on 11 Jul 10:32
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Invasive species are something else. They can cause active harm to an ecosystem and are crucial to look out for, especially in sensitive areas. Just because “life finds a way” doesn’t mean destroying a niche habitat is okay.
NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io
on 11 Jul 12:03
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As if nature won't just fucking figure it out.
Nature will figure it out, but it won't necessarily figure it out in a way that's good for us (or whatever we want to prevent from going extinct).
This is a terrible take. Just because you imagine that nature will “figure it out” doesn’t mean we shouldn’t still try to good stewards of the environment all the same. In LA where I live, the mustard plants that the Spanish spread take over everything and push out the native wildflowers that native pollinators rely on. Then they dry up in the summer because they’re not meant to be here and provide fuel for fires. It I objectively bad for the environment in every measurable way. And don’t get me started on kudzu. The environment is so fucked up BECAUSE of people like you going “Oh nature will just figure it out”. Do better
California’s general mishandling of nature and natural resources is a great example of what I’m talking about. We don’t have a fucking clue, yet we think we know better, and no lessons get learned despite how clearly wrong our solutions are. Like the wildfires and water “management.”
To be clear, most other states are also run by morons making idiotic natural resource decisions. California’s just a good example since you brought it up.
oh I’ve only grown vine beans. The ones I have that were originally smuggled when all the invasive species were brought in grow easily 10+ feet high and any I can’t reach are left to dry on the vine at the end of the season and the poles are toppled to grab them
faythofdragons@slrpnk.net
on 11 Jul 16:53
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I suspect that’s one of the reasons they’re grown in greenhouses commercially. They use a lift to pick, and it’s easier to drive over pavement than dirt.
Bloomcole@lemmy.world
on 11 Jul 17:09
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I am aware of, and deeply intrigued by, the three sisters method. It’s just not a commercially viable method of growing those crops; I don’t know what the harvest would look like.
We need to grow a lot more industrial hemp, but I’m afraid that’s a bit of a pipe dream unless we change…literally everything.
We have neighbors with tons of hemp bales mouldering in the field because the processors won’t take them because they don’t have anywhere to sell them to. Maybe it’s incompetence, or maybe the hemp hype isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. There aren’t a lot of people willing to grow it anymore.
Bloomcole@lemmy.world
on 11 Jul 17:08
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He’s a bit slow on the uptake
LovableSidekick@lemmy.world
on 11 Jul 17:16
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Weeds is just the gardening term for “their kind”.
chocosoldier@lemmy.blahaj.zone
on 11 Jul 19:26
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OOP is the author of something like seven published novels, one of which has been adapted into a movie and another of which may soon be made into a streaming series. Never feel embarrassed to say what you learned today.
It’s easy when you didn’t know something that is completely reasonable not to know, like in this example, but it’s always good to admit your ignorance.
wolfrasin@lemmy.today
on 11 Jul 19:45
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Nobody’s said it so I will.
A weed is any plant that grows on disturbed or compacted soil without cultivation. Their growth conditions are created by humans and their spread is caused by humans.
Our opinions mean nothing to plants
IAmNorRealTakeYourMeds@lemmy.world
on 11 Jul 23:05
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i call this the weed paradox.
even though weeds grow unassisted. it is impossible for everyone to grow weeds in their garden. for is they try, they are no longer weeds
Weeds are just highly successful flowers that have earned resentment from others.
simulacra_procession@lemmy.today
on 12 Jul 08:22
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How about honeysuckle vs trumpet vine? Both grow like hell, invasively, where I live. One is a tasty and pleasant treat when flowering. The other is just… there, growing. A lot.
It’s a bit clearer in french; “weed” is “mauvaise herbe” which literally translates to “bad herb/grass”.
stevedice@sh.itjust.works
on 13 Jul 00:52
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Another fun fact about plant naming conventions: all lettuces* are the same species
*except wild lettuce but nobody really considers that a lettuce. Still, I guess it would be more correct to say all of the food lettuces are the same species.
Irrelevant side quest that I went on while double checking this: DuckDuckGo now forwards some search queries to their chatGPT wrapper, which prompted (pun intended) the following interaction:
ThanksForAllTheFish@sh.itjust.works
on 13 Jul 23:12
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More powerful AI says:
No, not all lettuces are the same species, although many commonly consumed lettuces (e.g., iceberg, romaine, butterhead, oakleaf, and leaf lettuce) belong to the same species, Lactuca sativa.
However, some plants commonly called “lettuce” belong to different species or even genera. Examples include:
Lactuca serriola: Wild lettuce, an ancestor to cultivated lettuce.
Valerianella locusta: Corn salad or lamb’s lettuce, commonly consumed as lettuce but from a different genus.
Cichorium endivia: Endive, sometimes called lettuce but technically not in the lettuce genus (Lactuca).
Eruca vesicaria (Arugula or rocket): Often mixed with lettuces but belongs to an entirely different genus and family.
In summary, while most common lettuces belong to a single species (Lactuca sativa), not everything commonly called lettuce or used similarly in salads is botanically the same species or even genus.
stevedice@sh.itjust.works
on 14 Jul 02:03
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Are those actually considered lettuces, though? It’s most likely a cultural thing but none of those are lettuces over here. As in, calling them lettuce would be as far fetched as calling spinach lettuce.
threaded - newest
Fun fact: the name for a weed in my native language is literally “angry grass” :3
Unkraut in German. Doesn’t deserve to be called a Kraut.
So technically all non-Germans are Unkrauts! I‘m incorporating this word.
I know where you are coming from, but as a German calling someone „Unkraut“ has a very dehumanizing sound and was used by nazis to classify people they wanted to murder. Example: deutsche-digitale-bibliothek.de/…/6SLYFZ3ZSAWYUJX…
„However, it would have to become the task of the Inner Mission… to clear God’s field of this Unkraut“: women as victims of forced serialisation and “euthanasia” under National Socialism
What happend next is posted daily by mastodon.world/@auschwitzmuseum So you might want to skip this.
Um… Ok you might have saved me from a few faux passes.
Happy to help!
Similar in Norwegian: Ugress. Un-grass.
I’ve heard one definition of it that I like: The grass that your (grazing) animals won’t eat.
Oh man. I have known this word as the name of an electronica music project for many years. Now I know what it means (never bothered to look it up. )
ugress.bandcamp.com
Ogräs in swedish, gräs is herb and the O is like making it not-grass.
Röka gräs is smoking weed though so suddenly it’s getting the good treatment.
Herb is ört in Swedish. Gräs is better translated as grass, so ogräs is non-grass. This also enables a funny way to insult someone’s lawn – since lawn is gräsmatta (grass carpet) – by calling it an ogräsmatta.
.
I love it, what language is that?
Lithuanian :3
Very :3pilled
:3 and UwU are my personality at this point x3
My guess was correct, based only on the translation of piktžolė lol.
The French name for weed could be translated to “bad/wrong grass”
Erbaccia in Italian, bad/ugly grass
I think this is something I might be too French-Canadian to understand, here we’d call it “pot” or perhaps “herbe”, both of which don’t translate to “bad grass”.
Unless overseas “herbe” translates to weed. We use it pretty interchangeably with “gazon” (which just means grass)
“Mauvaises herbes” this is the word I was thinking about.
Mine translates to “bad grass” in both my mother languages.
Seems to be a pattern :3
yeah, that both have a lot of words translated from each other xD
In Swedish the prefix for bad stuff is the same as the prefix for not or un-. So a monster is a not-animal and a weed is ungrass. Which is especially interesting to me because that same prefix (o) is for better versions of things in Japanese.
e: This got me thinking about “plant,” and I realized it’s literally the verb to plant. In Swedish it’s a growth, or thing that grew. Japanese and Chinese: planted thing. Spanish is also the same as the verb. I feel kinda bad we mostly talk about them in terms of farming them rather than giving them a proper name. Like if they get sentient someday, plant will probably be considered a slur.
Puts on nerd glasses well ackshually it's used to elevate the status of something, such as with people, objects or other entities of social or religious significance (for example other people's family members in a polite situation). It's more honored than better.
I don’t love the honor translation partially because it’s been used in racist caricature, but also because it’s often inaccurate. Like you might say ohana because you’re in an extremely formal interaction, or because you want to sound poetic or whatever, but you’re not actually saying “honorable flowers” usually. You can mean that though. I feel like it’s too context-sensitive and culturally nuanced for simple translation.
I think the most common instance would be simply wanting to sound cute.
There’s a perfectly good definition of the difference between flowers and weeds.
weeds are plants with the capacity for spite
Well, “weed” can be a legal definition. A lot of governments have a noxious weed list that either provides for consequences if you suffer that plant on your property, or just an excuse for the government to come on to your property to kill the weeds for you. For instance, Russian Olive is legally a “kill on sight” invasive plant in my area.
noxious and invasive weeds.
A guest on Space Ghost Coast to Coast put it best. “A plant out of place” is a weed, like an insect out of place is a pest. It’s a definition that centers ecology and targets invasive species.
[with visibly bloodshot eyes] “Nah, man, I disagree with your definition there.”
like I know it’s a science meme but both the stoner and the linguistics guy inside me go “but wait, there’s more…”
.
Don’t smoke dandelions.
But do make wine from them…
My definition: aggressive spread and resilience to removal.
Plants 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.
Humans are a weed.
(Humans! :))
But you are fighting constantly to get rid of it bcs of some arbitrary goals. And 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.
<img alt="" src="https://lemmy.ml/pictrs/image/41b1c0c3-ed8b-48a7-9b34-8a5a76ff4ec4.jpeg">
My sounding port is DC 24V compatible, just hook me up, I have still decades of battery life to offer!
No weed is for plant. Fir animals its pest/vermin.
True. Which still leads to an infestation.
<img alt="" src="https://lemmy.zip/api/v3/image_proxy?url=https%3A%2F%2Feconosystemics.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2009%2F05%2Fworld-population-chart.jpg">
On non-logarithmic scale:
<img alt="" src="https://lemmy.zip/api/v3/image_proxy?url=https%3A%2F%2Fourworldindata.org%2Fcdn-cgi%2Fimagedelivery%2FqLq-8BTgXU8yG0N6HnOy8g%2Fc73c00db-d2ed-4af6-3882-8a18bbf77700%2Fw%3D2699">
And don’t forget that shown is just the last couple of thousand of years - there are 4 more millions of years prior to this of slow growth (and some collapses) but it wouldn’t even register on such a chart.
Ugh, I guess this is far off topic.
Love the malthusianism. Why focus 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’.
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.
Yeah, 4 million years of various “humanoid” species cohabiting & barely making it through (one big event wiping out the whole species - that’s why we have such a shallow gene pool & all look “identical” relative to difs in other species).
But the rapid growth was always unsustainable, the gens lived on natural wealth that they just took out of (into?) the economy way quicker than the replenishing cycle. But the difference between a million and a billon is unimaginable, that’s why we can now witness the collapse (mass extinction event) within a generation.
There is such a thing as exotic invasive species that destabilize the local ecosystem, though.
Yes, humans.
We destabilised to fairly high extend literally all the ecosystems (unless you count battery cage farming as an (artificial) ecosystem, that one boomed, agricultural monocultures too).
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). Bcs ecosystems overlap, there is no strict boundary for the species.
And that is what always happened throughout history, it’s part of evolution (ever fauna actively transferring various species to new environments).
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.
60 cm is the actual number, which makes it much too real for me…
I love stumbling across random information like this. I had no idea that mint spread so aggressively - and will likely never need this information. But it’s fun to learn.
Not only does it spread aggressively through its roots, but it also grafts onto almost anything. The roots connect to other plants and create new hybrid mints.
That fits to a lot of useful plants too. Strawberries, Brambles, Mint, just to name a few.
Yes. If you don’t have adequate containment then strawberries can absolutely be a weed.
A delicious weed, but still a weed.
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.
Yes, this was a real educational technicality fuckup, it seemed sus but everyone was like “don’t you know it’s a weed”? - “No, no I do not. And you don’t even have a field to worry abut crop yields, it’s just a lawn & now there is a flower in it, wtf.”
I know it’s economy (or even sociology), but it’s too close to biology not to directly explain it properly.
I'll have you know my lawn is a crop and it yields social status.
I prefer the bees in my clover over conforming to some neighborhood standards.
Social status with the local HOA,
not the social status with the local coven.
Just wait until he finds out about “tree”
Any kind of twig that’s not a shrub?
A nice one, and not too expensive.
Ni
Oh, what sad times are these when passing ruffians can say, “Ni” at will to old ladies!
Nuu, nuu!
Clean and reasonably priced
Or “fish”
Or “fruit”
Or ‘vegetable’
www.buttersafe.com/2025/07/03/weed-eater/
<img alt="" src="https://hexbear.net/pictrs/image/274bc0f6-d28f-4ee8-89e8-ed3b4a1d88a5.jpeg">
What about invasive vs naturalized?
My garden is all weeds. Tons of different plants, but some dominate in certain seasons, growing like 5 feet high. Seems to have avoided anything nasty though, no thistles, nettles or brambles.
My neighbour’s garden is a thin layer of plastic astroturf. And they let a dog run about on it. Good luck getting dog diarrhoea out of that.
I know which I prefer.
I also prefer your dumb neighbor having diarrhea stained astroturf.
I wish someone had warned me before No Mow May about brambles.
1 shoulder injury and a year later I need chainmail gloves and a fucking flamethrower. I fill my green bin with brambles, by the time it’s picked up they’ve grown back.
The main root is under a shed. I don’t know how to eliminate it.
I don’t know if you’re opposed to herbicide, but triclopyr will kill it. You can get triclopyr salt (water based) and apply it to the freshly cut stump surface (within moments of cutting), or triclopyr ester (oil based) and apply it to the outside of the plant close to the base, no cutting required. Both of these will kill the root. Otherwise just keep cutting and eventually you will exhaust the root.
Not sure about elsewhere, but in the USA you can typically buy the water-based triclopyr salt in a small bottle with a brush attached to the cap. This is in pretty much any garden store. Even though you have to cut the plant first I think this is the best form for just a few plants.
If I can use it in a targeted way with limited collateral I will take it.
It between a shed and neighbours fence so as long as I don’t end up nuking their garden there’s not much else to affect.
Thanks
The worst I had to deal with was pampas grass, which appears to be a plant made of actual swords.
I spent three days hacking at it in a coat so I wouldn’t get shredded. When I finally cut the root bulb out it was a cube of wood a foot across. I could barely lift it out, I had to roll it to the bin.
At least pampas grass doesn’t spread.
Pampas grass is actually super invasive in certain areas (like all of California).
I don’t know if this will work on brambles, but for pesky root systems I’ve had luck with Bonide’s Stump and Vine killer. You cut near the base of one of them, then paint the exposed stem with this stuff. It absorbs into the root system and kills all of it. Works great on pokeweed.
Edit: Turns out this is just a specific brand of triclopyr herbicide like MoonMelon mentioned. So here’s another recommendation for triclopyr!
Cheaper than buying my third set of secateurs, I’ll give it a go, thanks!
Brambles can be valuable plants, providing shelter and food for many small animals and tasty blackberries for people. But, if they become noxious, they can spread quickly and choke out all other plants. They spread by rooting from the plant tips and even if you dig up the root system, any little piece of root can and will re-root and grow a new plant.
Either move the shed to get at it - all of it - or you honestly may need to resort to herbicide to kill it. It sounds like you have fought them mechanically and are losing the war. I would recommend consulting your local garden center for the best herbicide to apply to kill them.
Yeah, it’s a shame to get rid of it, I’m usually happy to let it go crazy for a few months so the bees and birds have their way. But I learned about bramble growth the hard way. Didn’t know they were vibes or they spread from the tips. Thought I could just chip the main stem and it wouldn’t be a big deal. But it’s had 2 summers now and when I cut the grass (or tried to) surprise!
The floor is bramble vines too. Like something out of a horror film, just kept pulling them up, ruined 2 pairs of gloves and 2 sets of secateurs , it’s only a tiny garden! (And the first sets were never up to the task)
Luckily I have some other bushes and ferns for stuff to live in but I just don’t have time to stay on top of the mechanical side to control it.
If you are happy with the plants being where they are then they aren’t weeds. The main problem is companies that sell plant killing chemicals and services treat the word ‘weed’ as if it had a universal meaning.
Don’t know what plant it is, but what a great word.
Nature’s barbed wire. They often have things like blackberries on them.
Thank you for enlighting me. :)
I have a thornless variety of blackberry along my fence. I would still consider that area full of brambles though.
This is a screenshot from a stage in Donkey Kong Country 2 called Bramble Blast. It’s those plants.
<img alt="" src="https://mario.wiki.gallery/images/4/49/Bramble_Blast_DKC2.png">
I have brambles sprouting up all over the place from where they were left to spread by the previous occupant. And that sodding bindweed stuff.
If it wasn’t for my wife it’d be full of veg.
In Spanish we call them “malas hierbas”
In German it’s “Unkraut” which could either be interpreted as “not herb”, “abnormal herb” or “evil herb”. Is the range similar in Spanish?
Other than the “not” part, yeah. “Mala” is bad, wrong, evil, wicked, ill, naughty, etc.
(Checked this to confirm before I posted, since it’s been several years since I’ve known Spanish well enough to speak it.)
Estonian is umbrohi which is kind of like “not grass” so pretty similar to Deutsch here
In french, it’s similar: “mauvaises herbes”
And I think that’s beautiful.
I learnt from Animal Crossing that it was “Malezas”
es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maleza
La maleza, mala hierba, hierba mala, yuyo, planta arvense, adventicia o planta adventicia, planta espontánea o planta indeseable
“Mala hierba nunca muere” is also a fun saying
Maleza is more like a thicket or lots of malas hierbas.
dle.rae.es/maleza?m=form
But now I see that in some countries is synonymous with mala hierba, I didn’t know that.
Some countries in Latin America call it maleza and others do not
Isn’t hierba buena mint? Everything else must be hierba neutra then
Then we go and define things as “invasive” as if the world hasn’t been ever-changing for billions of years. As if we know better and need an environment to remain exactly as we found it, forever. As if nature won’t just fucking figure it out.
It definitely counts as invasive if we put it there though. I don’t see rabbits swimming to Australia.
Invasive species are something else. They can cause active harm to an ecosystem and are crucial to look out for, especially in sensitive areas. Just because “life finds a way” doesn’t mean destroying a niche habitat is okay.
Nature will figure it out, but it won't necessarily figure it out in a way that's good for us (or whatever we want to prevent from going extinct).
Lots of know-it-alls proving your point
This is a terrible take. Just because you imagine that nature will “figure it out” doesn’t mean we shouldn’t still try to good stewards of the environment all the same. In LA where I live, the mustard plants that the Spanish spread take over everything and push out the native wildflowers that native pollinators rely on. Then they dry up in the summer because they’re not meant to be here and provide fuel for fires. It I objectively bad for the environment in every measurable way. And don’t get me started on kudzu. The environment is so fucked up BECAUSE of people like you going “Oh nature will just figure it out”. Do better
California’s general mishandling of nature and natural resources is a great example of what I’m talking about. We don’t have a fucking clue, yet we think we know better, and no lessons get learned despite how clearly wrong our solutions are. Like the wildfires and water “management.”
To be clear, most other states are also run by morons making idiotic natural resource decisions. California’s just a good example since you brought it up.
Another terrible take. And you’re trying to do a motte and bailey here. Your opinions are bad and you should feel bad 👎
Is this fish but with plants?
fish but with plants is trees
get out… are you saying barks have no meaning
barks have the meaning that you agreed upon with your puppy girlfriend :D
In Thailand, if you can eat it, it’s not a weed.
The idea of “weeds” is a colonialist construct.
The general definition of a weed is “any plant growing where you don’t want it to be”. A corn plant in a bean field is a terrible weed.
what the hell is a bean field? also beans are great with corn they climb the stalks, also have squash, then boom you have the so called three sisters.
Bush beans are a thing? Soybeans don’t climb either, and it’s the most common bean grown in the US.
oh I’ve only grown vine beans. The ones I have that were originally smuggled when all the invasive species were brought in grow easily 10+ feet high and any I can’t reach are left to dry on the vine at the end of the season and the poles are toppled to grab them
I suspect that’s one of the reasons they’re grown in greenhouses commercially. They use a lift to pick, and it’s easier to drive over pavement than dirt.
Never heard of the battle of the beanfield?
I am aware of, and deeply intrigued by, the three sisters method. It’s just not a commercially viable method of growing those crops; I don’t know what the harvest would look like.
We need to grow a lot more industrial hemp, but I’m afraid that’s a bit of a pipe dream unless we change…literally everything.
We have neighbors with tons of hemp bales mouldering in the field because the processors won’t take them because they don’t have anywhere to sell them to. Maybe it’s incompetence, or maybe the hemp hype isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. There aren’t a lot of people willing to grow it anymore.
He’s a bit slow on the uptake
Weeds is just the gardening term for “their kind”.
“you people”
A weed is whatever your HOA says it is.
A HOA is a weed.
Ironically, weed isn’t a weed for many people.
OOP is the author of something like seven published novels, one of which has been adapted into a movie and another of which may soon be made into a streaming series. Never feel embarrassed to say what you learned today.
It’s easy when you didn’t know something that is completely reasonable not to know, like in this example, but it’s always good to admit your ignorance.
Nobody’s said it so I will.
A weed is any plant that grows on disturbed or compacted soil without cultivation. Their growth conditions are created by humans and their spread is caused by humans.
Our opinions mean nothing to plants
i call this the weed paradox.
even though weeds grow unassisted. it is impossible for everyone to grow weeds in their garden. for is they try, they are no longer weeds
Weeds are just highly successful flowers that have earned resentment from others.
How about honeysuckle vs trumpet vine? Both grow like hell, invasively, where I live. One is a tasty and pleasant treat when flowering. The other is just… there, growing. A lot.
Same rules apply. If you don’t want it there, it’s a weed. If you don’t mind it being there, it isn’t.
.
My co-workers call me weed I think it’s because I’m tenacious. So much in fact I have a meeting with HR on Monday probably a pay rise
It’s a bit clearer in french; “weed” is “mauvaise herbe” which literally translates to “bad herb/grass”.
Another fun fact about plant naming conventions: all lettuces* are the same species
*except wild lettuce but nobody really considers that a lettuce. Still, I guess it would be more correct to say all of the food lettuces are the same species.
Irrelevant side quest that I went on while double checking this: DuckDuckGo now forwards some search queries to their chatGPT wrapper, which prompted (pun intended) the following interaction:
<img alt="1000034205" src="https://sh.itjust.works/pictrs/image/c765d1c8-2a48-4313-b584-adb005ad0d54.jpeg">
More powerful AI says:
No, not all lettuces are the same species, although many commonly consumed lettuces (e.g., iceberg, romaine, butterhead, oakleaf, and leaf lettuce) belong to the same species, Lactuca sativa.
However, some plants commonly called “lettuce” belong to different species or even genera. Examples include:
Lactuca sativa: The typical garden lettuce varieties (iceberg, romaine, butterhead, oakleaf, loose-leaf lettuces).
Lactuca serriola: Wild lettuce, an ancestor to cultivated lettuce.
Valerianella locusta: Corn salad or lamb’s lettuce, commonly consumed as lettuce but from a different genus.
Cichorium endivia: Endive, sometimes called lettuce but technically not in the lettuce genus (Lactuca).
Eruca vesicaria (Arugula or rocket): Often mixed with lettuces but belongs to an entirely different genus and family.
In summary, while most common lettuces belong to a single species (Lactuca sativa), not everything commonly called lettuce or used similarly in salads is botanically the same species or even genus.
Are those actually considered lettuces, though? It’s most likely a cultural thing but none of those are lettuces over here. As in, calling them lettuce would be as far fetched as calling spinach lettuce.