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+---
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+title: Weeds
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+slug: weeds
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+description: Today I learned that there is a flower that smells like shrimp.
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+<!--- authors:
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+ - name: David Windham
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+ title: Something Else
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+ url: https://davidawindham.com
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+ image_url: https://davidawindham.com/wp-content/themes/daw/img/opengraph_image.jpg -->
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+tags: [garden, house, plants]
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+image: https://davidawindham.com/wp-content/themes/daw/img/opengraph_image.jpg
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+hide_table_of_contents: true
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+---
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+
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+Today I learned that there is a flower that smells like shrimp. For the last week I had been asking the better half if she smelled shrimp. At first, I had just assumed that perhaps the neighbors had cooked a Beaufort stew outside and had maybe dumped some of the water into their yard. I knew I was wrong after it stuck around for a week.
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+<!-- truncate -->
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+Last night on the deck, I finally went online in search of answers and found it. We have a Pyracantha[^1] growing along the backside of the house. It was cut back dramatically during the repairs last year and it started flowering heavily a week ago. They're a member of the Rose family and related to the many-flowered cotoneaster[^2] and native to large swaths of Asia and the middle east. They started being exported to Europe as shrubbery a century ago because of the red berries in fall and pale flowers in spring. I see Lowe's is selling one called the 'Southern Gentleman Winterberry White Flowering Shrub' and there are other various hybirds still available.
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+Here are the berries and flowers:
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+There are some plants with shrimp-like appearance and this isn't the only plant that smells like shrimp. The many-flowered Spiraea prunifolia[^3] and the Pyrus calleryana[^4] also smell a bit shrimp'y. The Pyrus calleryana is the parent family of the Bradford pear which have been planted widely and are now considered an invasive species. It is now illegal to grow, buy, or sell in many states[^5].
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+We had a good chunk of our yard torn up by the equipment taking out trees and lifting the new roof on after the repairs from Hurricane Helene. I've noticed that because of it, some plants are taking advantage of the freshly tilled soil like the Japanese Stiltgrass[^6]. It's really got me to thinking about exactly what is or isn't invasive in a suburban environment though. If anything is invasive, it's us with the blowers, mowers, grass, and chemicals. A weed is pretty much any plant considered undesirable[^7].
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+With advent of quick and easy to use plant identification using photos and AI, we've started identifying everything. And as we make plans for various projects, we're determining what we call weeds. Because it's just over an acre and I like manually walking the yard, I'm pulling the stiltgrass and some other plants. I'm leaving the pyrocantha though. And after about three hundred episodes of Gardner's World, I'm also starting to change my attitude about landscaping for a sustainable habitat, both in terms of wildlife and maintenance. I've really started to enjoy the variety and less controlled approach. I planted 10lbs of native wildflower in our natural areas and I'm sure our HOA will send me a letter about the so called weeds and I'll be forced to go present to the board and insult their tastes in pine straw heaped upon tree bases surrounded by over-fertilized mowed grasses.
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+There's really a bigger metaphor to this and I can most easily point at the current approach to immigration. Who really belongs where? Is that the question? It just seems that some of the native species are threatened for whatever reason. I'm leaning more and more towards a balance desperately trying to make the planting appear as if they're natural. If anything has been bad for the habitat, then we're really the weeds. I won't be using the metephor, but I will post the HOA letter here when I get it and make a 30+ slide presentation on landscaping for the board of directors.
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+<div><br/><br/></div>
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+---
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+[^1]: Pyracantha - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyracantha
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+[^2]: Cotoneaster - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cotoneaster
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+[^3]: Spiraea prunifolia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiraea_prunifolia
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+[^4]: Pyrus calleryana - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyrus_calleryana
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+[^5]: Callery Pear - National Invasive Species Information Center - https://www.invasivespeciesinfo.gov/terrestrial/plants/callery-pear
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+[^6]: Japanese Stiltgrass - National Invasive Species Information Center - https://www.invasivespeciesinfo.gov/terrestrial/plants/japanese-stiltgrass
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+[^7]: Weed - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weed
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