Herbicide
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Herbicides, also commonly known as weedkillers, are pesticides used to kill unwanted plants. Selective herbicides kill specific targets, while leaving the desired crop relatively unharmed. Some of these act by interfering with the growth of the weed and are often synthetic mimics of natural plant hormones. Herbicides used to clear waste ground, industrial sites, railways and railway embankments are not selective and kill all plant material with which they come into contact. Smaller quantities are used in forestry, pasture systems, and management of areas set aside as wildlife habitat.
Some plants produce natural herbicides, such as the genus Juglans (walnuts), or the tree of heaven; such action of natural herbicides, and other related chemical interactions, is called allelopathy.
Herbicides are widely used in agriculture and landscape turf management. In the US, they account for about 70% of all agricultural pesticide use.
See also
- Integrated pest management
- Index of pesticide articles
- Weed control
- Bioherbicide
- List of environmental health hazards
- Rainbow herbicides
- Soil contamination
- Surface runoff
- Weed
