It is important to accurately identify weeds when deciding upon a control strategy. Most people use common names to identify weeds. Common names are any names that people have come up with to describe a particular weed and they sometimes invent their own names or apply the same name to different weeds. The use of common names often causes confusion. There are exact names, however, for each particular species that are established and governed by strict international botanic law. Although there are fewer than 100 weeds that are common in Arizona, hundreds more are potential problems. An Illustrated Guide to Arizona Weeds lists 172 species while Weeds of California and Other Western States lists 750. The Illustrated Guide can be accessed on-line with this link: http://www.uapress.arizona.edu/onlinebks/weeds/titlweed.htm.

To contact Barry Tickes go to: btickes@ag.arizona.edu.

For questions or comments on any of the topics please contact Marco Pena at the Yuma Agricultural Center.
College of Agriculture, The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ.