There are many herbicide-resistant weeds — and then there is Palmer amaranth pigweed. As weed scientist Aaron Hager says, “Palmer is best described as Satan.”

Able to spurt 8 inches upward in two weeks, the shock and awe of pigweed drains billions of dollars from U.S. farm profits each year.

An individual pigweed plant may produce 400,000 seeds that — airborne or waterborne — allow the palmer to advance in waves. Pigweed loves heat and once past 2 inches  the race is over in some fields; pigweed has won. It then becomes entrenched, reaching toward 7 feet and expanding at the base to what is essentially a small tree trunk — brutal on farm equipment.

For more, see

Photos: Lonesome Dove begins cutting corn

Photos: Shifting farmland with Robert Precht

Photos: Vernon Jackson fires irrigation gun at cotton crop

Photos: High school cotton choppers hit Delta rows