ABSTRACT
For the purposes of weed management it seems most appropriate to consider the biology and ecology of plants, both crops and weeds, as they interact in an agricultural ecosystem. From a purely ecological perspective weeds may be regarded as colonizers, plants that are adept at capitalizing on disturbance. Bunting (1960) eloquently stated, “Weeds are pioneers of secondary succession of which the weedy arable field is a special case.” However, all weeds are not colonizers. Recently, efforts to compile lists of characteristics or attributes of weeds have failed to distinguish weeds as a subset. Rather, they have further defined or delineated ruderals and/or colonizers. Requisite to a working definition of the term weed is the human element or criterion of being unwanted. Given that element, the list of ideal characteristics of weeds proposed by Baker (1974) represents features that are commonly observed in species that are universally regarded as weeds.
