Weeds generally fall into three categories—annual weeds, perennials, and biennial weed plants. Annual weeds that spread by seed can grow every year in new places. Perennial weeds produce long taproots and can be challenging to remove. Biennial weeds produce flowers in the first year and seeds in their second.

You can identify garden weeds by taking into account their structure, appearance, type and leaf size. We’ve also included a few tricks to get rid of them, so read along.

Stripes, variegated colouring, patterns, size (scale) or structure are unique identifiers that only exist in certain plant species. Often with invasive non-native plants these characteristics have evolved due to surviving or adapting to their native climate or habitat. These plants are often strikingly different to our native plants.