Weed control legislation for Canada Thistle was passed in 1795 in Vermont
and
1831 in New York.
They know, they just know where to grow, how to dupe you, and how
to camouflage themselves among the perfectly respectable plants, they
just know, and therefore, I've concluded weeds must have brains."
- Dianne Benson, Dirt, 1994, p. 128
Weeds are the little vices that beset plant life, and
are to be got rid of the best way we know how.
- Farmer's Almanac, 1881
A mature Tamarisk plant consumes 300 gallons of water a day.
Dyer’s Woad was cultivated as a source of blue dye
Roots of the weed sucked first life from the genesis of earth
and hold the essence of it still. Always the weed returns;
the cultured plant retreats before it.
- Beryl Markham, West with the Night, 1942
According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, purple loosestrife now
occurs
in every state except Florida. And is still available for purchase!
Weeds Never Die.
- Danish Proverb
A weed is a plant that is not only in the wrong place,
but intends to stay.
- Sara Stein
Goats eat thistle leaves backwards to prevent them from sticking in their
throats.
In 1690, Tobacco extracts were used as contact herbicide.
Black Henbane is narcotic and poisonous to humans.
What is a weed? A plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson, Fortune of the Republic, 1878.
Socrates (condemned to death) was allowed to administer his own sentence by
drinking a potion of Poison Hemlock.
Weeds don't need planting in well-drained soil; they don't ask for
fertilizer or bits of rag to scare away the birds. They come without
invitation; and they don't take the hint when you want them to go.
Weeds are nobody's guests: More like squatters.
- Norman Nicholson.
A weed is a plant that has mastered every survival skill
except for learning how to grow in rows.
- Doug Larson
Hoary Cress is capable of producing up to 455 shoots in one year.