Have you ever thought about what a weed is? And no, I don’t mean the kind some people smoke. I mean the kind that grow and people race to pull, spray, or otherwise attempt to destroy? What is a weed?

I read a quote a long time ago that made me think of weeds differently from that point on. It’s by Ralph Waldo Emerson, and he said “A weed is a plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered.” I love that!

The dictionary gives several definitions of what a weed is, including that it is a plant that is not valued where it is growing.

My awesome Florida Master Naturalist instructor says that a weed is anything growing where you don’t want it to grow.

Some of the "weeds" that grow around Florida are wildflowers. Florida was named after wildflowers because at one time the state was filled with them. We may have bulldozed over them and put parking lots, pavement, and lawns, but they still try to shine through here and there.

We tend to think of a “weed” as something bad. Horrible. Ugly. When in fact, many of these so called weeds are beautiful! They just may happen to be growing in the wrong place, or where you don’t want them to grow.

These three pictures I took this morning while out on my jog. They are in someone’s lawn, and therefore considered a weed. Yet they are unique and filled with beauty! 

Just some food for thought for you this morning. I hope you never look at weeds the same way again (even if you still have to remove them from your garden, flower bed, lawn, etc.). I leave you with this:

“In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous.” - Aristotle