most hated weeds

[planthelper]

euphorbia heterophylla, is probably the weed i hate the most in my garden, it invades specialy the good soil and it's seeds can shoot quite a distance.

they multyply fast and grow even faster than i can pull them out...

my most favorite weed in the garden are the sidas, which are impossible to pull out, but have quite some ornamental beauty. my most favorite weeds are the stinging nettles, urtica dioica, as it makes very good neetle juice, which is used as a growth enhancer.

saying this, i just had the idea to turn the wild poinsettia maybe into some compost tea as this would destroy the seeds.

anyway, i used to get quite upset about weeds and wild grasses, but now i belive that they improove my soil and protect it. one gets different, weeds over the year in the same areas, that can only be good for the soil as it's the only real and original permaculture.

another thing i noticed is that a small bougainvillea is often said to be beautyfull, whilst a big one, suddenly becomes a weed.

even the, in oz so much hated lantana, becomes a prized pot plant overseas, kept as a standard and often recieving very prominent locations in prized gardens,

so it realy seems,

one mans weed is another mans treasure!

[mescalito]

Yeah I agree PH look into wild-harvesting and you will be surprised at how many weeds you can harvest and use from remedies/poultices/teas/composting etc.

We have a lot of Clivers or Cleavers here and they shit me but they can be used as can Shepard's Purse,dandelion,red clover...man there's heaps!

I used to home school some kiddies and taught them a lot about Wildcrafting,it was amazing to know how many problematic weeds could be harvested and used.

Edit: LOL Just remembered when Pattersons' curse was being sold in florists in Sydney many years ago.

It's a pain in the arse for graziers and farmers!

We used to suck out the nectar (and the odd insect!) when we were kids and come back home with bee stings and itchy MOFO legs!

Edited November 17, 2010 by mescalito

[Moses]

i remember being given an italian bonsai book and a number of their plants would be weeds here and would not even be considered for bonsai-lantana and box thorn being two of them.

[Magicdirt]

I look at weeds in a different light to most people.

Some can be a real pest but most of them are godsend.

I can go outside at almost anytime of year and make a nutritious salad out of mainly weeds growing around the yard.

There is an old saying that weeds are high in the minerals that are deficient in your soil, so I look at weeds as free soil improvers.

If they are problematic and I don't have the time to deal with them properly I just make an effort to remove the seed bearing parts and compost the rest.

[Yawning Man]

Cape weed.

[Auxin]

...you will be surprised at how many weeds you can harvest and use...

Thats when they stop being weeds tho. A weed is just a prolific plant we havent learned how to use yet.

For me one weed annoyed me, then it was liver medicine. Another weed annoyed me, then it was good green manure. A poisonous weed annoyed me, then come to find out if you remove the poison its a cancer medicine. Another weed (a Plantago spp.) annoyed me, turned out it was a natural antiseptic bandaid, a week later cut my thumb on a mouldy tree stump on a 10 mile hike, saw, chewed, and spat the goo on the cut- no infection and it didnt even leave a mark. Even fucking crabgrass is a medicine!

One plant still annoys me due to seeming lack of usefulness.. but just watch, I'll get ringworm on my ass or an allergic rash on my nipples or some damn thing and a search will reveal that plant as a cure.

I no longer believe in weeds, I just have a better comprehension of human ignorance!

[Amazonian]

I have sandy soil in my area. If it wasn't for cape weed all over the back yard, I would be looking at sand instead of a sea of yellow flowers with busy bees collecting pollen. I am sure that all plants/weeds can be good for something. @ PH , That picture that you have included looks like a mutant type of poinsettia, quite pretty.

Edited November 17, 2010 by Amazonian

[Coquero]

i have these sticky weeds in my lawn, almost like clover but the seedpods have a sticky coating which will stick to anything... bare feet, car tyres, pets... man they are annoying!!! they only just appeared this year and have completely taken over the backyard

[PhoenixSon]

^^^man they are shit, takes ages puling those off. Then add to that cobblers pegs and this rampant velcro vine ive got, also with sticky pods. :uzi

be good to find out if they have any uses beside being a pain in the arse.

Edited November 17, 2010 by spacemonk

[bℓσωηG]

Oxalis! Hard to pull out, leaves snap off leaviog the tuborous root and when you finaly get that out theres heaps of tiny bulbs attached to it that drop off everywhere grrrr, i do have parsley as a weed here though which is welcome

[ThunderIdeal]

lol

well a weed is an unwanted plant so for each person and each situation there are a different set of weeds. i like this idea that no plant need be a weed however even if you have a use for a weed, it might still overtake all of the other plants you have uses for.

most of the time what we consider a weed is really just a highly successful plant, and the plants we'd rather see growing can't compete with them.

[Amazonian]

I must admit that i am not a fan of Bindi. Ouch!

Hey Blowng, your avatar seems to have evolved .

Edited November 17, 2010 by Amazonian

[Magicdirt]

^^^man they are shit, takes ages puling those off. Then add to that cobblers pegs and this rampant velcro vine ive got, also with sticky pods. :uzi

be good to find out if they have any uses beside being a pain in the arse.

 

There's a bit about cobblers pegs Here

[ThunderIdeal]

maybe i'm being patronising but do you temperate folk even really know what weeds are like

[mutant]

hey one is the super weed, it's got medicinal uses, but you got to hate it. It forms hard to dig out rhizomes

Cynodon dactylon or something relative.

[mescalito]

i have these sticky weeds in my lawn, almost like clover but the seedpods have a sticky coating which will stick to anything... bare feet, car tyres, pets... man they are annoying!!! they only just appeared this year and have completely taken over the backyard

 

Yeah that's Clivers,they have sticky barb coated leaves.....and don't let them flower unless you have a pressing need to harvest

As for stopping bleeding, the weed known as tobacco is an excellent straight on the cut coagulator.

Used in the wars and in the Trades (applied with electrical tape of course!)

Stinging nettle has some really good qualities,is richer in vitamins,minerals and iron than spinach and the sting can be eradicated by simmering,unless you want to flail your arthritic joints for pain relief

Sea-side daisy makes a good source for Pyrethrum and is technically a weed..I suppose Chamomile is too!

Couch is good for coughs and wheezes.....

[mac]

Tribulus terrestris

the 3 corner jack

Cultivation and uses

The plant is widely naturalised in the Americas and also in Australia south of its native range. In some states in the United States, it is considered a noxious weed and an invasive species.

It has been reported that the seeds or nutlets have been used in homicidal weapons in southern Africa; murderers smear them with the poisonous juice of Acokanthera venenata and put them where victims are likely to step.

Dietary supplement

T. terrestris is now being promoted as a booster for the purpose of increasing sex drive. Its use for this purpose originated from a Bulgarian study conducted in the 1970s, which found effects on free testosterone and lutenizing hormone in men belonging to infertile couples. A research review conducted in 2000 stated that the lack of data outside of this study prevents generalizing to healthy individuals.

The extract is claimed to increase the body's natural testosterone levels and thereby improve male sexual performance and help build muscle. Its muscle-building potential was popularised by American IFBB bodybuilding champion Jeffrey Petermann in the early 1970s. T. terrestris has consistently failed to increase testosterone levels in controlled studies.

It has also failed to demonstrate strength-enhancing properties. However, many supplement brands claim effects of products that combine various herbs with T. terrestris.

Tribulus has been shown to enhance sexual behaviour in an animal model.

It appears to do so by stimulating androgen receptors in the brain.

Some body builders use T. terrestris as post cycle therapy or "PCT". After they have completed an anabolic-steroid cycle, they use it under the assumption that it will restore the body's natural testosterone levels.

Medicinal uses

In traditional Chinese medicine Tribulus terrestris is known under the name bai ji li (白蒺藜). According to Bensky and Clavey, 2004 (Materia medica 3rd edition, pp. 975–976) Tribulus terrestris is ci ji li (刺蒺藜). "Confusion with Astragali complanati Semen (sha yuan zi) originally known as white ji li (白蒺藜 bai ji li), led some writers to attribute tonifying properties to this herb..."

Tribulus terrestris has long been a constituent in tonics in Indian ayurveda practice, where it is known by its Sanskrit name, "gokshura." It is also used as an aphrodisiac, diuretic and nervine in Ayurveda, and in Unani, another medical system of India.

Animal studies in rats, rabbits and primates have demonstrated that administration of Tribulus terrestris extract can produce statistically significant increases in levels of testosterone, dihydrotestosterone and dehydroepiandrosterone, and produces effects suggestive of aphrodisiac activity. On the other hand, one recent study found that T. terrestris caused no increase in testosterone or LH in young men, and another found that a commercial supplement containing androstenedione and herbal extracts, including T. terrestris, was no more effective at raising testosterone levels than androstenedione alone.

The active chemical in T. terrestris is likely to be protodioscin (PTN), a cousin to DHEA. In a study with mice, Tribulus was shown to enhance mounting activity and erection better than testosterone cypionate.[citation needed] This however, is not as convincing as one might think. Although an OTC supplement outpacing a pharmaceutical is big news, testosterone cypionate is a synthetic ester of testosterone engineered for its longer activity. (Testosterone cypionate has a half-life of 8 days and is administereed every 2–4 weeks in humans for testosterone replacement."National Institutes of Health". Retrieved April 24, 2010). The proerectile aphrodisiac properties were concluded to likely be due to the release of nitric oxide from the nerve endings innervating the corpus cavernosum penis.

Adverse effects from supplementation with Tribulus terrestris are rare and tend to be insignificant. However, some users report an upset stomach, which can usually be counteracted by taking it with food. Another rare side effect which has been reported is gynaecomastia, which while potentially problematic does tend to support the purported androgenic-anabolic effects of this plant.

Edited November 17, 2010 by mac

[planthelper]

what you got stuck on your shoes mac, is worth a fortune, considering how expensive tribulus gets traded at times, anyway, very nice pictures! i find tribulus only once in a while in my location, but sure was very excited the very first time i spotted it, as the thorny seeds look so halucigenic, don't they?

lactuca virosa, and argemones jump now to my mind aswell as some of my most apreaciated weeds.

another thing about weeds is aswell, that they share the same characteristics of the stock market, if they are in abundance price is low and we don't want them, if they are low in nummbers, we appreaciate them more and the prize rises. people even buy weed seeds, if they don't have them growing where they live at all, funny hey?

one time ago nature was our store and medicinal cabinet, now society get's controlled in a way, that makes us stupid and as such dependent on other sources.

[mescalito]

one time ago nature was our store and medicinal cabinet, now society get's controlled in a way, that makes us stupid and as such dependent on other sources.

 

You said it!

[Yeti101]

Cape weed.

 

Don't speak too soon - this weed came up in some reading I was doing a while back http://www.shaman-australis.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=25171&view=findpost&p=273584

[ThunderIdeal]

three corner jack aka caltrop weed, was everywhere when i grew up in the hunter. what a cunt of a weed, for real, puts big bleeding holes in your feet and punctures the tyres on your pushy.

i had been contemplating a little while before this thread appeared how glorious weeds can be to behold, after rain for instance. they leap out of the earth so quickly that they can be two foot high without the tiniest blemish. brand new!! the weather hasn't had a chance to damage them, not a single nibble from a bug and no fungal spots of any kind. behold their immaculate form, a plant in an ideal state exactly as it should be, a perfect expression of it's genetics.

[kadakuda]

I used to say that as well. I have 3 words for you that in a tropical country of deep soil and lots of water will make you second guess that: solanaceae, convolvulaceae and poaceae.

tonight i spent 2 hours clearing about 3x3 meters (with a razor sharp 30" machete) and not even getting to the grasses or the roots. morning glories are easy to pull, but seed in a week or 2 from popping.

creeping grasses cover teh ground, all in between everything and pull up all the soil with them. or the big grasses you need a fricken winch just ot pull out, and fire dont do nuthin on them.

but tonight's biggest pain in the ass is 2-3meter tall. luckily only mildly irritating to the skin, but damn are they spiny and painful when swinging a blade. i love plants, but no 3 families hold a stronger love/hate relationship than those 3 for me.

[apothecary]

Oxalis! Hard to pull out, leaves snap off leaviog the tuborous root and when you finaly get that out theres heaps of tiny bulbs attached to it that drop off everywhere grrrr, i do have parsley as a weed here though which is welcome

 

Oxalis tuberosa roots release a fluorescent exudate.

There was a paper stating these exudates to be b-carbolines (even harmine directly?), which caused some excitement within the community. However the paper was retracted and I believe the scientific community is unsure what the exudates are composed of.

However it is well known Oxalis leaves can act as an antidote to various poisons (arsenic, mercury, Datura?).

More work is definitely needed on this plant IMHO.

At EGA on the weekend someone repeatedly told me Sida acuta was native Australian. After I returned home, managed to confirm that it isn't. Sida are extremely useful weeds during the winter periods.

Like the wise amongst us here have pointed out, most weeds end up being very useful. My most hated weed is couchgrass. However wiki shows even this extremely invasive annoying plant has good use:

Couch Grass has been used in herbal medicine since the Classical Greek period. Sick dogs are known to dig up and eat the root, and mediaeval herbalists used it to treat inflamed bladders, painful urination and water retention. It also has antiseptic properties.

The dried rhizomes of couch grass were broken up and used as incense in mediaeval Northern Europe where other resin-based types of incense were unavailable.

Edited December 7, 2010 by apothecary

[incognito]

what you got stuck on your shoes mac, is worth a fortune, considering how expensive tribulus gets traded at times, anyway, very nice pictures! i find tribulus only once in a while in my location, but sure was very excited the very first time i spotted it, as the thorny seeds look so halucigenic, don't they?

is there a market for dried herb??

if so my bro-in-law is sitting on a fugen goldmine!!!

Imagie harvesting that nasty shit.

I stacked my motorbike when i was but a wee taker wearing a pair of shorts and thongs only, into a mound of that nast nasty shite, catheads we called it. Mum was pulling thorns out of me for months. The nastiest of thorns, it seems to have a poison in them, that really irritates the puncture site, especially if u get one in you when it is still fresh and green.

Personally I hate the stuff, and if there is any value in dried herb, point me toward the market!

A fellow was telling me on the weekend that Pattersons curse has the second biggest source of Omega 3 oils asides from fish?

edit- well there u go http://www.csiro.au/news/newsletters/Food/0905_food/htm/story06.htm

Edited December 7, 2010 by incognito

[watertrade]

when I lived in South Africa we called Tribulus terestris, devil thorns.

What my parents were doing letting me walk around the south African bush with no shoes... I don't know. My Mum recalls how hard it was to fit my new school shoes for my first day school. and school in South Africa sucked too ;)