'The seed blows about in every breeze': Noxious weed eradication in the Cape Colony, 1860-1909

Crosby has portrayed the plants and 'weeds' that accompanied European colon ial expansion as often beneficial to settlement. In fact, many settlers thr oughout the temperate zones expended vast amounts of capital and labour on the eradication of those imported plants designated as 'noxious weeds', whi ch they deemed a direct threat to the development of the new colonies. This paper explains the spread of key weed species in the nineteenth century Ca pe Colony where the number of livestock soared, cultivation was extended, a nd some plants thrived in conditions of rapid environmental change. It anal yses the problems experienced in defining plant species, understanding thei r spread, and devising systems of extirpation. The colonial state, without the finances or powers to impose its will on the rural populace or the tech nology to re-engineer the environment without their assistance, increasingl y focused its attention on changing the culture of settler agriculture, ins tilling a work ethic, and demonising weeds through a mixture of military, m edical and moral metaphors. Nevertheless, weeds sometimes directly imperill ed the settlers' tenuous hold on the land Europeans experienced protracted wars of attrition not only with indigenous people bur with drought, pathoge ns, vermin, and the like. Weed history further qualifies the prevailing pic ture of colonialism by casting a very different light on the colonial state .