Abstract
Vegetation is usually considered to be the epitome of the “natural world.” But vegetative landscapes, like other landscapes, are culturally constructed. This becomes most apparent when focusing in on those plants commonly referred to as “weeds.” Weeds defy cultivation and maintenance, but they are brought into existence by an imposed cultural interpretation defined by these same processes, resulting in a paradox. As such, it is difficult to pin down the definition of a weed; rather, the idea of a weed is constructed through a set of characteristics that are, for the most part, dependent on context and relative interactions: place,