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

Weeds are growing exactly where they want to grow. Where they are the species best suited to that location. The amount of sunlight, rain, soil acidity etc, it’s perfect for them; otherwise some other type of weed would be growing there.