Posted by brianc on October 12, 2000 at 16:28:53:
In Reply to: Re: "Toxic"? posted by Randy on October 12, 2000 at 14:15:45:
You're correct in the linguistic sense of toxic. In weed science though, "toxic" is used to refer to plants that contain substances which adversely affect animal body systems. Plants that contain substances that adversely affect other plants are "alleopathic." In both cases the terms refer to biochemical reactions. Plants can also adversely affect the environment by out competing desirable plants. This is often the case with weeds and I believe is the situation in this case. You are correct that a noxious weed can be toxic. Not all toxic plants are considered noxious or even weeds though.
I'd be happy to try further explainations if it doesn't drive everyone else crazy. I wonder if this is the farthest this board has gotten from diving? Of course, I believe that everything is interconnected so perhaps the topic is not too far off track...
And if scientific terms seem a bit too esoteric, just remember that we live in a country where the government declared that ketchup fulfills the requirement for vegetables in school lunches.