Weed

From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about the plants called weeds; For the drug, see: Cannabis

A weed is a plant that someone thinks is bad, because it is growing in the wrong place. Trees are not often called weeds, only smaller plants.

Someone may grow a plant because it has beautiful flowers, but other people may think that this plant is a weed for some reason. This may be for one of these reasons:

  • it has pollen that makes them sneeze,
  • it spreads seeds which will grow quickly,
  • the roots go too far under the ground and can cause damage to houses or pipes,
  • the roots spread quickly,
  • the plant has poisonous berries,
  • the plant has liquid (sap) in it which can hurt a person's skin,

If someone is farming a plant and it then moves outside the farm, the plant may then be called a weed.

Some plants are very hard to stop once they start growing. These are called invasive weeds.

Weed is also a name for any wild plant, one that people do not use for anything.