Eli5, how do selective herbicides such as broadleaf weed killer work? Why do they only kill certain things?
In: 46
I use herbicides for work so I can actually help here
Plants have families, genus, and species and beyond (sbsp var etc) but are also split into various groups such as dicotyledonous and cotyledon to name some, known as broad lead vs narrow lead. However this isn’t botanically correct as there are more botanical features which tell which of these groups a plant falls into such as;
Root types
Flower type/shape
“organs” (the inner workings of how it)
Leaf shape or leaf replacement
The list goes on
The most important one is the inner workings of how plants respond to stress or how plants actually work to live. General herbicide like glyphosate attach to the circulatory cycle and just pump toxic plants using their general systems all plants have, but specific targeted herbicides don’t, they attach to the parts of plants that the other groups either lack or are underdeveloped.
Not really a 5yo level but hope it helps
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