On a bright and cloudless Tuesday with the sun shining in the May sky, Conrad H. Moss knelt in his front yard, his fingers brushing the yellow heads of the dandelions the way you touch something you intend to keep. He stayed there longer than was necessary. Then he went inside and found the warning from the town’s city council instructing him to remove the weeds from his lawn or be issued a citation. The ticket would cost him two hundred and fifty dollars, after which the town’s Department of Public Works would eradicate them anyhow. He read the notice calmly, though with frustration and anger working quietly inside him. It was marked WARNING—INITIAL NOTICE at the top, rubber-stamped in red ink. The dandelions growing in his yard were the primary objection; unloved by most but superstars of the weed world, tough, resilient, opportunistic, and very successful