RHS asks gardeners to find interesting ‘weeds’ that may be rare plants

While once gardening was somewhat of a battle against nature, people are now working with native plants and animals. Photograph: Kathy deWitt/Alamy

Record the “weeds” that pop up in your garden because they could be a rare plant, the Royal Horticultural Society has said.

Private gardens in the UK may be an untapped source of scientific discovery, according to the RHS’s new ecologist, because “scientists can’t just go into people’s gardens”.