Handbook of Nature-Study · Lesson CXLIX · Topic 22: Weeds and wayside plants
149. Outline for the study of a weed
Goal: Your child picks one weed from the yard or garden and “interviews” it with Comstock's questions to find out how it wins.
You'll need
- Nature notebook, pencil and colored pencils
- A hand lens (magnifying glass)
- Garden gloves
- A trowel
- One common weed from your own yard (an adult checks what it is)
What's in the book
Comstock's essay on weeds (“The worst weed in corn may be—corn,” with a photograph of chickweed), then Lesson CXLIX, a nine-question outline for studying any weed.
The lesson, step by step
Choose a weed
Pick a common weed you know from your own yard, garden or sidewalk cracks: chickweed, purslane, plantain, lamb's quarters, crabgrass. An adult checks it first; avoid poison ivy, wild parsnip and anything you can't name. Wear gloves to pull it.
What is a weed?
Read from the essay:
A weed is a plant growing where we wish something else to grow, and a plant may, therefore, be a weed in some locations and not in others.
Why do we call a plant a weed? Is a weed a weed wherever it grows?
How weeds hurt crops
In how many ways may a weed injure our cultivated crops?
Hint from the essay: weeds steal water and food from the soil, shade crops out, and some are bad or poisonous for animals.
Interview your weed
How did this weed plant itself where I find it growing? By what agency was its seed brought and dropped?
What kind of root has it?
Note carefully the leaves. Are they eaten by grazing animals? If not, why?
Dig it out with the trowel to see the whole root. Comstock mentions bitter leaves; we find out by looking and asking, never by tasting.
Seeds
Does it ripen many seeds? Are these ripened at the same time or are they ripened during a long period?
Compute how many seeds one plant of this weed matures in one year.
Count the seeds in one pod or head and multiply by the number of pods.
Nature notebook
Make a “Wanted” poster for your weed: a drawing of the whole plant with root, its name, where it was found, and its tricks for winning. Wash hands when you come in.
Afterwards
Use the same outline on two more weeds this month and compare their tricks.
Answers to the book's problems
Comstock's own example: “butter-and-eggs” was a garden flower in Grandmother's day but escaped and is now a bad weed. Weeds hurt crops by taking water and food from the soil, by shading them, and by making hay unpleasant or poisonous for animals.
Worked out for this site from the scan. If a number in your copy differs, trust the book.