Let me clarify, let’s be friends with weeds! We all know that a weed is just a plant in the wrong place but who defines what is the wrong place? And is it a beloved plant, a wildflower, a weed, a noxious weed or an invasive weed? Who sets these parameters?
A weed is classed as a plant that causes economic losses or ecological damages, creates health problems for humans or animals or is just generally undesirable where it is growing. A noxious weed is a plant designated as injurious to public health, agriculture, recreation, property or wildlife. Once a weed is classified as noxious, authorities can take actions to destroy it and limit its spread. An invasive weed is one that persists and spreads widely in natural ecosystems outside the plants native range; these are often introductions from foreign countries. As such they often lack natural enemies to curtail their growth and spread. Many invasive weeds are also considered as noxious.
It’s certainly best to know your ‘enemy’ but keep in mind that of approximately 250,000 species of plants worldwide, only about 3% behave in a manner that would make us call them weeds. Weeds aren’t inherently bad; many stabilise the soil, provide important food sources and shelter to animals and insects and add organic matter to the ground they grow in. Some are even edible – here are just a few examples of edible weeds you will commonly find here:
Portulaca oleracea, purslane, verdolaga. A creeping succulent with fleshy leaves that taste of cucumber. It can produce around 2,000,000 seeds per plant – hence its weed status. But imagine its possibilities as an edible plant.
Plantago lagopus, plantain, lengua de perro. The young leaves of this plant are edible, raw, lightly steamed or stir-fried. They are also a good substitute for a dock leaf when you get too close to a stinging nettle.
Amaranthus retroflexus, pigweed, moco de pavo. Amaranth is one of the oldest food crops in the world, highly prized in the Caribbean, India and South Africa. Use the leaves and flowers as a spinach substitute; they are stuffed with vitamins, minerals, protein and folic acid. The seeds have now found a trendy market, one of the superfoods with cult status because they are gluten-free. In spite of this, if we see it in our gardens, we are likely to pull it out. Try leaving a patch, if not to crop, because it absorbs heavy metals in the soil.
Stellaria media, chickweed, pamplina, hierba de gallina. When young, the leaves, stems and flowers can all be eaten either raw or very lightly cooked; it has a mild spinach-like flavour.
Taraxacum officinale, the common dandelion, diente de leon is probably one of our most hated weeds and yet they are an important source of food for bees early in the season and there are a whole range of dandelion delicacies. Toss the young leaves in salads; the flowers are delicious fried, you can make pink dandelion wine and dandelion root coffee! They are rich in nutrients, proteins, vitamins A and C, calcium and iron.
See what I mean, they have lots to offer us. I think that one of the main problems is that we don´t know our weeds, we can’t identify with them! So I’ve been delightedly following the rise of plant graffiti in Europe. Because there is less foot traffic on our pavements recently, opportunistic plants are growing freely from cracks of paths and walls in towns and cities across Europe. Rebel botanists and plant lovers are chalking their names
next to them so that we can all recognise them. It’s like when we learn that the guy up the road is called Fred Smith, we instantly feel friendlier towards him when he has a name. Equally, that lump of weed growing out of a crack, call it herb Robert and it becomes a friend.
A recent poll showed that just 6% of 16 to 24 year olds could identify a wild violet. Yet 70% of those polled said they would like to be able to identify more wild flowers. These plant survivors may not seem important to us but they are absolutely essential to early pollinators, caterpillars, butterflies and, therefore, to us too. Their pollen and nectar is generally richer and produced in greater quantity than that of hybridised garden flowers. And, below ground, the roots create tiny microhabitats for many creatures such as woodlice, worms, spiders, slugs and snails and these feed birds and hedgehogs. As always, Nature is all-encompassing.
The idea of writing up plant names in chalk started in France, where pesticide use in streets and parks has been banned since 2017, and in gardens from 2019. The movement is spreading across Europe and even school kids are being encouraged to – and loving – naming all the plants. Who couldn´t love names like rosebay willowherb, creeping buttercup, poppies, self-heal, ragwort, cat’s ear and even viper’s bugloss – each has a story to tell. Viper’s bugloss, for instance, is botanically echium vulgare. Most in-the-know gardeners love to have echiums in their gardens, yet this one, which is common enough, is spurned. Look at it closely, it’s a beautiful plant with its electrifying sapphire blue flowers with magenta throats. It probably got its name from its spotted stem which resemble snake markings and bugloss from the Greek meaning ox’s tongue, in reference to the tongue-shaped leaves.
Botanical chalking is catching on, it’s an instant fix with nature. It grounds us, educates us and connects us with another world that we all need. It’s spreading to trees too, lovely idea, because how often can we identify a tree? Our streets don´t have to be sanitised and sterile. For us lucky campo dwellers, the weeds/wild flowers are looking beautiful at the moment and we’re lucky to have them so don’t be too quick to strim them down; let the flowers finish, spread their seeds and, then, when their lives are coming to an end, is the time to strim so that the browned foliage doesn´t become a summer fire risk. Urban or campo, it’s up to us to protect our weeds!
If you like the idea of botanical graffiti, as far as I know, in Spain and most of Europe you can chalk on pavements. In England – I was really surprised to read – you cannot. You need a license to chalk on paths or walls! So no more games of hopscotch or pavement art. Seems a nonsensical bit of bureaucracy to me, given that the first shower of rain is going to wash it all away anyway!
We really hope that Viveros Florena will be re-opened by the time your Grapevine hits the streets – it’s been a long time! As I write, it’s pouring down and doesn’t feel very spring-like or summer-like. Nevertheless, and because summer will probably arrive with a bang, from 2nd June we will be changing to summer hours which are 9am till 2pm.
