NAUGHTY LADIES
Text and Photos by Janice Tucker

They can be obnoxious, pushy, and sometimes poisonous. They invade places where they are not welcome. They steal if their survival depends upon it and not have a whit of remorse for those they deprive. They are extremely persistent, impossible to ignore and keep coming around even though told bluntly to go away and never come back. Being devoid of manners, they pay no attention and continue to behave badly. And they can be beautiful!

We’re not discussing human nature here. Weeds. We’re talking about weeds that invade our gardens.

No gardener wants these “naughty ladies” even if they are lovely. We curse them, yank them up by their roots, and dig them out. They don’t care. They keep coming back stronger and stronger, sometimes even bringing a relative which behaves just as badly.

Don’t be fooled by the pretty pink bindweed flower surrounded with dainty leaves, trailing elegantly along a fence row. Ha! It’s a constant battle to prevent its speedy growth and hell-bent intention to choke out everything in its overbearing path. Don’t even try to eradicate it. Instead strive to do as Mrs. Elspeth Bobbs recommends and “have the bindweed sulking if not conquered.” Then there are the tumbleweeds. They are not the billowy soft balls of dried plant material tumbling through the one-horse towns of the Old West romanticized by lonesome cowboy songs. Actually they should be cast as the “black hats” since they are prickly dried up Russian thistles with nothing nice to be said about them.

Some plants are only considered weeds when taking up residence in your garden. There are weeds that have redeeming qualities such as food or medicinal properties and providing habitats and food for wildlife. Just keep them away from your flowerbed! Their blooms can be incredibly beautiful and sometimes exotic. However, as mentioned above, try not to allow the truly invasive weeds to get even the tiniest toehold.

From late spring through early autumn, Leonora Curtin Wetland Preserve shows these bad beauties blooming in all their glory side by side with more “desirable” plants. Despite volunteers’ valiant efforts to eradicate the most invasive species, these “naughty ladies” continue to appear every year. Sometimes we just have to take beauty where we find it.

	Silverleaf Nightshade (Solanum eleagnifolium) Blooms May-October Poisonous. Fruits contain solasodine, a steroid compound used commercially to synthesize steroid hormones. Native Americans had some medicinal uses for this plant.		Prickly Lettuce (Lactuca serriola) Blooms July-September Sometimes a serious invader in irrigated crops and orchards. Young tender seedlings are used in salads & it has been cooked as a potherb. Large quantities can cause digestive upsets. An edible oil is obtained from the seeds after they are refined. It has been used for some medicinal purposes.
	New Mexico Thistle (Cirsium neomexicanum) Blooms spring through summer. Navajo & Hopi Indians used the thistle plant for medicinal purposes. Thistles are one of the Life Medicine ingredients for the Navajo, who usually do not distinguish between the various species.		Bull Thistle (Cirsium vulgare) Blooms July-September Although a Class C weed, the seeds are an important part of the diet of many birds, especially gold finches and pine siskins. Thistle seeds are sometimes sold as wild bird seed. The painted lady butterfly lays her eggs on the leaves. After they hatch, they eat the leaves
	Ivy Leaf Morning Glory (Ipomoea hederacea) Blooms July-September Although in the same family as bindweed, it is not as invasive in New Mexico. Some farmers claim they give early frost protection to the plants on which they twine.		Poison Milkweed (Asclepias subverticillata) Blooms July and August A perennial which emits a sap that is toxic to livestock. It is attractive to butterflies. It can be invasive in disturbed areas.