Public Enemy No. 1.... being eaten??

[Chris J]

Japanese Knotweed, of course. Easily spread, crowds out natural species, a devil to kill, strong enough to come through tarmac, a builder's nightmare - the bill for clearing it from the Olympic site was £70million. Quite pretty, though -



- and during August it flowers (but fortunately doesn't seed) -



But, I've just seen this -



- signs of something eating it! One of the problems with these invaders is the lack of things that eat/attack/disease them in this country, but perhaps some creature is developing a taste for it.

One scientific name for it is Polygonum cuspidatum, polygonum translating as "many knees", describing what look like a lot of joints on the stem.

50D + 24-105L.

Cheers, Chris.

[Loz :D]

Re: Public Enemy No. 1.... being eaten??

Be nice to think something is developing a taste for it! It's a nightmare on the railway infrastructure i see a lot of it everywhere I work, sometimes whole embankments/cuttings get taken over. Nice shot of the flowers.

[Muscat]

Re: Public Enemy No. 1.... being eaten??

Chris, again great background detail of interest, thanks for that. As with the other public enemy plants it is a shame that it has such a pretty flower.

[DeeGee]

Re: Public Enemy No. 1.... being eaten??

Agreed, it is a pretty flower.

Didn't know about the bill for the olympic site.