Japaneese Knotweed

Post by **Mick F** » 15 Jul 2007, 9:19pm

Have you got it? It appears to be everywhere.

Cornwall CC seem to have got to grips with it, and there's lots of sites that've been treated with a special herbicide, with little warning signs telling people to keep off. Very slowly, it's being beaten. www.cornwall.gov.uk on 'Interactive Mapping' have a reporting system, the website shows you where's been treated, where they know about but not treated yet, and they ask you to indicate anywhere they've missed.

Devon CC, on the other hand, are doing nothing as far as I can tell. As you go over the bridge back into "England", Knotweed abounds. Even the tractors that flail the banks every now and then to keep the hedges and trees in order, just flail the Knotweed too! That's the worst thing you can do!

When I did E2E2E last July (Was it that long ago? I ask!) I started to keep an eye on the roadside, wondering how far north Knotweed may be. I half thought that it was just a southern affliction. How wrong could I be!

Through Fife, it was rife! Kelty, or was it Cowdenbeath had a huge forest of it on both sides of the road, and there was a massive stack of it behind some railings just outside Inverness YHA. I even saw some just south of JOG!

I wonder if it's got to Orkney and Shetland yet.

Oracle · Post by **Oracle** » 15 Jul 2007, 9:48pm

Perhaps Devon Cycling Club just goes cycling while Cornwall Cycling Club have taken to gardening.

Kentish Man · Post by **Kentish Man** » 16 Jul 2007, 11:28pm

Mick,
I'll swop you: I'll have some of your knot weed if you'll take some (preferably all) of my giant hogweed - now that really is nasty stuff!
KM

Post by **Mick F** » 17 Jul 2007, 8:15am

I wonder if Alien Big Cats eat hogweed ......

Oracle · Post by **Oracle** » 17 Jul 2007, 8:34am

Only the cats of wizards eat hogweed.

softpedal · Post by **softpedal** » 19 Jul 2007, 8:16pm

Went for aride along some of the many canals through birmingham.
Very interesting, different world when you pop your your head up from the canal towpath and you're in the middle of sparkhill or lozells. Or even under spagetti junction.
Anyway I've never seen so much japanese knotweed, at least i think thats what it was? Rather nice fairly big ple red/purple flower.

Post by **Mick F** » 20 Jul 2007, 6:48am

It's got white flowers.

cjenn · Post by **cjenn** » 20 Jul 2007, 1:05pm

thanks Mick (i didn't dare ask & couldn't find it on the Cornwall site). haven't seen it around here yet, but then i'm officially hunting lichen, so on a more micro horizon. would 'Softpedal' be thinking of Rosebay Willowherb ? though the flowers are relatively small. yes! once you start looking, there's a whole new world out there.

has anyone got a large elm (stupid question, but i live in hope) ? if so, please could you inspect (@ any height, in the deep bark fissures) for caloplaca luteoalba. in other words, a circular, thin grey, flat growth with bright orange/ crimson 'fruits' (tiny circular discs) concentrated in centre. OK, a tall order.

Post by **Mick F** » 20 Jul 2007, 2:01pm

Hi Cjenn,

http://mapping.cornwall.gov.uk/website/knotweed/ then click on "I Accept"at the bottom of the page. You then get a zoom-able map of Cornwall with the known sites of the stuff, where it's been treated and where not yet.

How big is a "large elm". We have a few down by our gate, their trunks about 6 inches diameter.

cjenn · Post by **cjenn** » 20 Jul 2007, 3:23pm

another 'accept'. just had to with a new adobe having inexplicably lost mine (just to check the buses !). OK. you would need to multiply by 4 or 5 for the type of bark needed. are these special replacements after the DISEASE ? this wet has wrought changes in the local flora. the roses outside my front window have doubled in height compared to last year, & there's a hollyhock over 7 ft out the back. keep peering up @ it (its' only got a few flowers left, @ the top) & wondering if it's an escapee from Cape Canaveral.

can't say the same for the veg. broad beans & runners dismal, though my first attempt @ carrots not too bad considering the soil is totally unsuitable( stony; but the wet must have lubricated them ... the stones). it's worrying to admit that i'd need 2 fair-sized fields to keep me in carrots & onions annually.

apropos bikes. i've foolishly bought one on ebay recently with 531 super tubing. but it's heavy. is it the thicker tubing, or old, second-rate parts? only 19 " but weighs 30 lbs.

PaulR · Post by **PaulR** » 20 Jul 2007, 4:28pm

softpedal wrote:Anyway I've never seen so much japanese knotweed, at least i think thats what it was? Rather nice fairly big ple red/purple flower.

Sounds a bit more like himalayan balsam, another invader that loves waterside locations but is (I think) a bit less difficult to control and can actually a rather nice addition to the landscape. There used to be an island in the Severn at Shrewsbury (just downstream of the English Bridge, now silted up and part of the "mainland") that had a wonderful forest of the stuff and added a big splash of pink to the view.

Post by **Mick F** » 21 Jul 2007, 7:07am

cjenn wrote:are these special replacements after the DISEASE ? .

The elms are just 'growing' in the bank between us and the field. I believe elm doesn't grow very well from seeds, they send out suckers, I think.

Anyway, we've been here at this place just over 10 years, and at first we thought they were hazel, it was only after seeing the seed cases that we realised they were elm.

Dutch Elm Disease only gets in though the bark when the tree is mature. I think!

softpedal · Post by **softpedal** » 21 Jul 2007, 8:38pm

Your right it was hymalayan balsam, not japanese knotweed, i saw on the birmingham canal. Equally nasty stuff though.

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