What do weeds do differently than other plants that lets them grow so quickly?

Question

Edit: The weed lobby is alive and well in the comments! Just kidding. Appreciate the responses.

But my question still sort of stands. Take away the pejorative label “weed”—what allows these plants to perform better than the other ones?

In: 121

Answer 1

It isn’t necessarily a specific thing they do; it is simply the fact that they do grow quickly (and spread their seed widely) that makes them “weeds”. So two possible, and related, definitions of “weed” would be:

1) a plant which was not intentionally planted but grows in the same place plants which were do

2) plants which are very efficient at sprouting