RHS Weeds: the beauty and uses of 50 vagabond plants

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You know those old white men (OWMs) that are convinced they're experts on everything, regardless of whether or not they actually know shit? Yeah, that's pretty much Richard Mabey. Vi sono riflessioni sul rapporto fra uomo e natura, citazioni, innumerevoli personaggi e riferimenti al mondo letterario e dell'arte, e tanti aneddoti e descrizioni di eventi avvenuti in ogni tempo (dalla preistoria fino ai giorni nostri) ed in ogni parte del mondo, spesso riguardanti la migrazione delle erbacce a lunga distanza e la colonizzazione di luoghi nuovi. Anche la nostra Italia ha contribuito:: Funnily enough, of Buddleia, which Mabey states is an "immigrant" weed, I planted and nurtured a dark rich purple variety which has only just about started to flower after 2 years. The wild buddleia which presumably birds have pooed through onto the gravel path is now monstrously proliferating without any human intervention or nurturing whatsoever! It just goes to show, nature will do what nature wants to do! Mabey is so good at synthesizing ideas. I also really liked his book A Cabaret of Plants, and although his discussion of weeds is comprehensive enough, Cabaret was even longer and more complicated. The Overstory by Richard Powers is a highly unusual novel about trees, their relationships to each other and the world, and a set of people drawn together around a shared love and sense of protection for America’s ancient giant redwood forest. It makes you look at trees and woodland with new eyes, and wonder what messages the trees are sending each other through scents in the air and root chemicals, and that can’t be a bad thing as the sap rises and the first fuzz of green tips appear in our own woodland.

Richard Mabey knows his weeds. Seriously. You know those nutty birdwatchers with their field guides and binoculars—that's Mabey with weeds. Yes, you say, but those birdwatchers go out on field hunts searching for rare birds—so does Mabey with a group of botanical nerds, searching for alien weeds in the refuse of British dumps. When a potential alien weed is found, a whistle is blown, everyone gathers around, photographs are taken, and debate ensues. The weed is then carefully removed, bagged, and a member is chosen to cultivate the weed at home. Mabey knows his weeds.According to the Smithsonian article, the scare hype comes from two sources that are even used by professional and scholarly people: 1) a small garden club publication [what small garden club?], and two popular how-to books…a kudzu craft book [?] and a culinary/healing guide book [“The Book of Kudzu: A Culinary and Healing Guide” by William Shurtleff (1985)]. Kudzu is officially outlawed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. YET, here in the South, (according to this book by Mabey…which now I know may not be true), kudzu is still being used for controlling erosion. I haven’t found proof of this in writing yet.

Weeds by Nina Edwards discusses the scientific and cultural history of weeds, and how certain plants can come to be regarded as weeds while others are welcomed into gardens and allotments. Edwards reveals just how interesting and useful these seemingly annoying plants can be. Smithsonian Magazine article: “The True Story of Kudzu, the Vine that Never Truly Ate the South” (link): Because Mabey clearly knows what he is talking about, I gave him the benefit of the doubt. Assuming everything he said in this book is true, weeds are pretty amazing. Not only are they incredibly resilient, but they're smart. You thought Little Shop of Horrors was bad, wait until you see what our weeds are working on. Weeds is an excellent foray into the world of weeds. Here you see the weed through the lens of the historian, philosopher, scientist, socioeconomist, poet, and agriculturist.

I do share the author’s love of plants, however I do not wish to invite many of the weeds in his book into my small garden. Sorry. The author isn’t actually asking us to invite all the weeds in his book into our gardens anyway. Phew! Instead he is helping us look at plants that are regarded as weeds in some situations, and suggesting they may well be regarded as a good plant to consider in other situations. And, if that leads us to consider bringing in just a few of these weeds then that’s great. In reality, we will already have some of these weeds in our gardens. I come from a view that no garden is ever weed free, and I’m comfortable and glad this is the case. I enjoyed reading about the weeds in this book. It improved my knowledge, and I will certainly look at weeds in a new way. I will also revisit the book regularly throughout the year as I spot these weeds growing in the green spaces I enjoy. If you like poetry and 17th century history, Shakespearian and folk history on weeds, and are from Britain, then you just might like this book and give it a much higher rating. Me? I don’t like it so much. There was only a little bit of information I learned from this book. It’s obvious HE is very informed on ALL the weeds of Britain, and I do admire that, but I don’t like to read them on paper.

The main thing that anyone needs to know is that human acts create weeds. Disturbed lands, especially those that have had their existing ecology disturbed as well as the earth itself, are the most inviting for both native opportunists and non-native invaders. And our efforts to eradicate them simply encourage them to find ways to survive... for example low-lying dandelions in lawns. It's an arms race, just like the one between bacteria and antibiotics. Questo libro ricorda un po' quell'affermazione, anche se tratta il tema da botanico e giardiniere e non da orticultore. Mi è piaciuta molto la disanima su cosa sono le erbacce e su come alle piante questa definizione venga appioppata a seconda di quanto ci sono utili o fastidiose. E dato che lavoro in un posto in cui molto si parla di piante e specie aliene veder trattato l'argomento in maniera tutto sommato divulgativa è stato un piacevole diversivo. Unica pecca - ma dato che l'ho letto sul reader è inevitabile - mancano foto e illustrazioni delle varie piante citate. Così l'ho dovuto leggere con internet sempre attivo.Richard Mabey takes us from weeds' medieval double-employment in sympathetic magic and the theological Doctrine of Signatures, to the cutthroat world of 17th-century soldier-herbalists like Nicholas Culpeper, to John Ruskin’s strange disgust at the idea of photosynthesis (reducing flowers to mere “gasometers”), to the unexpected botanical marvels of London’s WWII bomb craters, and finally to dystopian science-fiction futures when human beings and all their works are remorselessly consumed by a tsunami of kudzu. Along the way we feast on a vernacular glossary matched only by that of the Lepidoptera, plants with names like gallant soldier, love in idleness, henbane, fat-hen, shepherd’s purse, pellitory-of-the-wall, stinking mayweed, giant hogweed, yellow rattle, self-heal, and welcome-home-husband-though-never-so-drunk. Mabey introduces us to “species that relish beheading,” an alfalfa seedling that sprouts “in the moist warmth of a patient’s eyelid,”plants with “leaves smelling of beef gravy,” and “the notorious Atheist’s Fig” that sprouted from the coffin of a blasphemer.

Darwin reportedly joked to Asa Gray about the pervasiveness of British weeds in N. America, and the scarcity of Amer. weeds in England, "Does it not hurt your Yankee pride that we thrash you so confoundedly?" Gray's wife responded that American weeds were "modest, woodland, retiring things; and no match for the intrusive, pretentious, self-asserting foreigners." Mabey says this is "both witty and scientifically spot-on." This is a brilliant, fascinating examination of the relationships between humans and plants, specifically those plants that we consider to be weeds. Our garden is admittedly "wild" in many places, purely because we can't be bothered to mow too much of it!! Watching the number of wildflowers and weeds which proliferate between the wild grasses is quite something, especially when said weeds harbour moth larvae, dragonflies, housing for mice, butterflies, and many other creatures. Anni fa partecipai a una uscita per la raccolta di piante selvatiche a fini mangerecci. Ricordo soprattutto che la nostra guida disse che oltre l'ottanta per cento delle erbe che togliamo dall'orto sono non solo commestibili, ma persino più nutrienti del radicchio che coltiviamo.Last words and thoughts from the author that I think perfectly describes weeds and that I agree with (p. 289-90): Some weeds with deeper roots contain much higher nutrition than grasses used for grazing animals. For example grasses only contain about 0.4% magnesium, whereas chicory, ribwort plantain and yarrow contain over 1%. Any animal that chews the cud, a ruminant, needs the mineral cobalt, which is 160 times greater in plantains and buttercups than in grass. Dandelion, stinging nettle and thistles have 5 times more copper than grasses and 1-1/2 times more iron. This just shows the importance of some weeds. Another point where the author rubbed me the wrong way…he brought it up first, so I get to respond…is the fact that he is obviously anti-Jew and more than likely anti-Christian. He claims, AS IF IT IS FACT, that the tribes of Yahweh rejected the culture of the Middle East and declared themselves the chosen people of a single God. They invented Monotheism, the belief that there is one deity, an all-supreme being that is universally referred to as God. Hmmm! Invented? I love his coverage of history, literature, myth, art, botanical gardens and many, many more topics. Like a number of American readers, I find his use of common names a problem to a degree. He says he uses scientific names as well as common names, but I did not always find that to be true. Early on he mentions fat hen frequently. Eventually I had to look it up—oh, of course—lamb’s quarters (the common name where I live). So, keep the internet handy.