Distressed or Dead Vegetation

Vegetation is distressed or dead when the chlorophyll has been damaged by a lack of nutrients or intake of harmful particulates. As a result of this damage to the chlorophyll the plants wither or stop growing and the coloring of the plants changes to a brownish or grayish color deepening on the extent of the damage.

 

A weed is a plant whose practical use has yet to be discovered or simply a plant growing somewhere you don’t want it growing. A dead weed or tree might be something quite different.

Plants are what are known as primary environmental indicators. This means that they are some of the first harmed by instability in the environment or environmental contamination. Generally speaking when plants become distressed it is because of a direct spill onto the plant, soil contamination, water contamination or a lack of nutrients. When a harmful substance such as petroleum is spilled directly on plant life it seeps directly into the plants cells disrupting the normal life cycle of the plant. Both soil and water contamination cause the plant to uptake harmful particulates through diffusion and these particulates also disrupt the plants systems. Finally harmful contaminates can bind with the key nutrients the plants need in order to grow in the soil and the water and remove the nutrients from the cycle and deny the plants what they need in order to grow.