What is it about?
Although neither ancient Greek nor Latin had a particular word for it, the idea of a 'weed' as a distinct category of plant clearly existed. In general, weeds represent the unwanted side of natural fertility, and can even be portrayed as a kind of aggressive enemy fighting against the farmer or gardener. The idea of the weed then makes its way into symbolic language to stand for immoral behaviour or unwanted elements in a speech. All the same, when it comes to individual plants, some weeds aren't always weeds, but can have properties that humans find useful.
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Why is it important?
In recent years there has been a great flowering of studies looking at ancient attitudes to the environment in general, but when it comes to plants the focus most often rests on trees and cultivated species. The weed is often overlooked, yet it offers a central reflection on human attitudes to the natural world, as well as the difficulty of drawing clear distinctions between different kinds of plant.
Perspectives
I have found it fascinating to tackle the question of how humans define and categorise different kinds of plant, and how we include them in our own moralising perspectives on the world. Weeds are an enjoyably recalcitrant bunch of plants, as cheerfully indifferent to the labels we place on them as they are persistent in growing wherever they can.
Rebecca Armstrong
University of Oxford
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: When Plants Attack: Ancient Sallies in the War on Weeds, April 2025, De Gruyter,
DOI: 10.1163/9789004733749_009.
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