Earth

it's a botanical/horticultural term for "plant out of place", horticulture being the cultivation or "culture" of plants within an enclosed space or garden, a space that is smaller, more intensively managed and complex than an agricultural field. it's use is going to be arbitrary, or at least an artifact of the person considering their own engagement with the space. one of those words that says more about the speaker than what they use it to describe.

it can be a determination by the individual or community and a formal/regulatory or informal designation. and all those things are fraught by politics, imaginaries, and all the other baggage we bring with us when looking at other life forms.

the current sensitivity-oriented guidance is to use the term "introduced" rather than "invasive" for those post columbian-exchange arrivals, which i get, because at least in the states, there's this bleedover between anti-immigrant sentiment and "invasion biology" eradication language.

i do think it's hilarious that one of the dominant slang terms for cannabis is literally the designation for "plant that shouldn't be where it is", as though anywhere it is found, in any context on earth, is not acceptable. additionally ironic, since landscaping while high was consistently one of my favorite moves.

speaking of lawn/gardening frustration: i hold an advanced degree, multiple formal credentials, have primary author credit on peer reviewed research, and nearly 2 decades of management, intensive consultative and hands on fieldwork experience on the national scope projects and even international in some contexts. my dumbass boomer parents still do not listen to a word i say about lawns, even when my guidance is the most gentle aesthetic change that simply saves them time and money (and helps the local watershed). because chemical company advertising and marketing told them what to think decades ago. it's doubly pathetic, because i've helped many other boomers come around on these things by developing curriculum and giving community lectures with like 1% of the effort i've spent on my parents.

"my lawn/garden's endemic polyculture supports biodiversity in the heavily fragmented and degraded ecosystem of the built environment." to me, a successful lawn has megafauna. i had a place for a long time that became like a seasonal weigh station for possums. dappled shade, tree fruit trees, lots of low shrubs and pockets of fallen materials to hide in. i was in the middle of a shitshow american suburb but could still see all kinds of stuff just by being quiet on my back porch. it wasn't fenced in, so the occasional dog-off-the-leash might run through, but all the wildlife could stay hidden and the dog would never see anything. if they got too nosy, i would shoo them off.