Think railroad tracks, abandoned parking lots, areas of industrial or urban grime. Think of ill kept hedges. Think of places you wouldn't expect a plant to survive, much less thrive. Think of abusive chopping, poisoning even. Nature abhorrs a vacuum. My favorite is box elder - it most often appears as a sprawling multi-trunked entity, sprouting from a stump that bears the marks of repeatedly being hacked down. I once saw one growing close to a factory window looking out from acid baths. A close second would be Ailanthus - the "Tree of Heaven", but it sure grows in some unheavenly places.

Mine has to be Queen Ann Lace.It grows here along our coastal highways and are treated like weeds.They are so big and nice,They come along with there machines first and try chopping them down and finally they use the weed killer that wipes them out till the next year and then they are back.I got my own seeds this year and plan to grow my own.

I used to have Queen Anne's lace at the front of my yard when it was sunnier there. It is actually a quite attractive plant as you say, and very drought tolerant as well.

Autumn Clematis, draping over Junk.
Good old Ironweed, which I LOVE.
Goldenrod
I agree with queen anns lace.
Old daffodils popping up indicating old homesteads

I like prickly pear cactus that grow in stragely high places ~ what wonderful surprises when you look up! I have two growing in the crotches of oak trees here on my ranch and quite a few on the ROOF (!) of the old pig shed that the pecan tree leaves have collected on for years ~ I think I'll strengthen the roof supports below them and let them grow!
But my favorite survivors have to be the daffodils, irises and four-o'clocks all over the place where they had been planted with loving care by someone far in the past ~ someone who is possibly buried in the ground themselves now, but who at that time long ago were looking forward to the day they would bloom. I thank them silently every time I see the patches of blooms ~ yellow, purple, white, pink ~ that are the last testament to, and a quiet remider of, a loving warm family and home that was once there...

In Northern California, it has to be Fennel. What a useful and attractive plant! - but here, it is considered a weed. -Grows on the railroad tracks, the beach, vacant lots, cracks in the sidewalk, etc. The birds planted one in my garden, and I cherish it, but I do religiously deadhead! I laugh when I see it for sale in the nurseries...

old fashioned single hollyhocks. There 'town' part of this town is old...old houses, old yards, old gardens. I am always amazed to see big stands of hollyhocks sprouting up in alleyways, wedged in between a gravel drive and huge oaks, seeding behind garbage cans. Those things have a real will to live, i guess!

Have seen many would be "EYE SORE AREAS"covered with wild roses and fragrant honeysuckle vines.

My friend and I were nursery-hopping and drove by a great blue flower by an abandoned building. We went back to grab some and it was growing between the cracks in the old sidewalk! I don't know what it is, but we call it "coffin flower" because the old building was a coffin factory!

Iris and tansy.

I know of a spot in the northern part of the lower pennisula of Michigan that is right in the middle of nowhere (now weeds, brush, some rusting old machinery)........where there's always a glorious spring showing of lilacs. I told the story that over 100 years ago, there was a cabin on that spot (long since gone!!!!). Still every year those lilacs put on a show in what what seem to be a very unlikely spot!!!

......Beverly

Around here in Maine, it's phlox and lupine, what a show they put on, railroad beds, in the field next to our dump, in gullys, we also have fields full of queen anne's lace, asters and old cellar holes full of lilacs, iris's, day lilies, lily of the valley and columbine. I'm just a shoveling fool in the spring and have filled my garden with as many of these "weeds" as I can fit in!!!

I rescued a few may-apples from my neighbor's yard before they dug up their old garden (they looked positively comical in their yard). My neighbor's house was owned by a woman who gardened their for many years, but she couldn't take care of it when she got older, and the house was rented for several years after she died. I love these plants, they have these wonderful umbrella leaves and they are growing right underneath a huge old maple (where little else grows without a LOT of additional compost). Maybe they will eventually try to take over my yard, but right now I love them.

I love the black-eyed susans behind the gas station,the cornflowers growing out of the cracks in the tarmac at the abandoned airport, the Queen Anne's lace along the roadside, and the wild mint everywhere!

I live on Long Island and by the bus stops and the backs of gasoline stations where the old tires are piled way high you always see wonderful blue flowered chicory. It gets weed wacked, trampled on, dogs love to do their business on it, salt trucks bury it in the winter and it keeps coming back. It's a real timex plant, takes a licking and keeps on ticking.

A volunteer sunflower blooming from a crack on the side of I 95 (not sure which state it was). Driving home from vacation one year. Just caught a glimpse of it blooming just as pretty as if it'd been planted by loving hands in a beautiful garden. It instantly made me think of that saying "bloom where you are planted" and I have never forgotten that flower and probably never will.

Here on the central california coast we have "sour
flowers" I don't know what they're really,I think
Oxalis. They are a beautiful yellow spring "weed"
which is absolutely everywhere. I love that my
neighbor sprays her yard with roundup to kill it anf
2 weeks later it's all back. Serves her right for
mistreating this beauty!

ROADSIDE CHICORY!!! That gorgeous summer blue (here on the east coast at least). We must be providing way-too-good soil for that pretty plant, 'cause it would never grow for us in the naturalized/"wilder" parts of our garden.

Wisteria! I love seeing overgrown vacant lots in the spring covered with wisteria.

Well, Bill, I would have to agree with Trudy and Enjo...Chicory would be the one! Such lovely blue flowers!

Hi Bill!

You're right! I love chickory along the roadsides, along with solidago...what a beautiful combination. Or sumac along the expressways in fall. And old peonies long left to their own devices in cemetaries, and finally old hydrangeas on long ago abondoned farmsteads...although it's rather sad to see an abondoned farm.

Eileen

mmmmmmmm dandelions...........

Brilliant blue perennial morning glory that climbs into the trees and crawls over vacant lots. Once you have it, you have it, though. I grew mine on a fence at a rental where the landlord had said "no vines!" Before vacating, I pulled out everything, every inch of those roots, including 4-inch diameter root/trunks. Honest!
But last time I drove by, that same chain link fence was covered with those same bright blue blooms. The vine was very kind to wait until we got our deposit fee back!

chicory gets my vote too. And coltsfoot, which is just starting to bloom now, a real harbinger of spring.
--rosebud

Old homesites in California disappear, except for two big Date Palms. On the foggy coast south of San Francisco the roadside ditches are full of lush white Calla lilies. Pink Jupiter's Beard ( Centranthus), Pride of Madeira ( Echium), and Red Hot Poker also seed themselves.

Put me down too for chickory. It carpets roadsides and vacant lots from my old home (Atlanta) to my new one (Maine). It's one of those plants that's best seen from a moving car, where its rangy leggy look can't interfere with the blue haze.

How could I forget!

One of my favorite "roadside weeds", although I hate to call it that, is wild Phlox.

There is a stretch of road out this way that goes about a few miles long and in late spring, early summer the whole road is covered in this phlox...wow! Is it gorgeous! The colors are pink, purple and white. I've been trying to guess for years the exact nomenclature of this phlox cause I thought I would like some in my garden. Then, thinking it over I think that maybe if it spreads this well in the wild it may take over my yard.

Eileen

Here is a link that might be useful: Scroll Down Photo to See Curly Dock Seed Stalks

Here is a link that might be useful: berries turn Black - useful for Dyes - Toxic even thru Skin!