INVADERS: JAPANESE KNOTWEED
Eco-gardening is at its best in The Monday Garden
May 2, 2004, Issue 110
Out of 4000 invasive plants in North America polygonum cusipdatum has distinguished itself by making everyone’s top 10 list (except you lucky people in Zone 8 and 9; I believe that it also shuns the North Pole). Japanese knotweed, also known as Mexican Bamboo and by several unprintable epithets, is about as stoppable as a major mudslide.
picture: JKW doing a home invasion, 3rd Street, Stamford CT. Spring 2004
A knotweed, JKW’s related to jewelweed see Issue 81 buckwheat, etc. It got into North American in the late 1800’s by use of its good looks and hardiness in the garden. The havoc that it’s wrecking in our wild lands makes you think twice about any alien plant that makes seeds or fruit and is promoted as “fast growing, hardy, easy care, drought and pest resistant.”