How does Japanese Knotweed spread so rapidly?

Japanese Knotweed doesn’t spread by seed – so how has it managed to get throughout the UK so readily and so rapidly?

Japanese Knotweed spreads by what are called ‘propagules’ this means that any part of the plant, whilst still alive, has the ability to generate new growth. The often repeated phrase … ‘a piece as small as a fingernail can re-grow into a new plant’ is an accurate description of the ability of JK to regenerate. The problems in the UK are mainly down to cross contamination – small fragments of the plant being transferred form site to site by unknowing users – tree removal, surface scrapes, trial boreholes, contaminated plant and machinery all have contributed to the massive spread of the plant.

For a simple method to ensure Japanese Knotweed doesn’t spread on to your property ring Japanese Knotweed Solutions and as about our ‘Clean Site Policy document’.

And just for fun, here’s a beaver damn made out of Japanese Knotweed:

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 25th, 2008 at 5:25 pm and is filed under Japanese Knotweed Info. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

One Response to “How does Japanese Knotweed spread so rapidly?”

1. Mike Clough Says:

   July 8th, 2008 at 12:51 pm

   Im answering my own question here but…I have just come back from Leeds where in the town centre the grounds maintenance team were strimming knotweed! Pieces flying everywhere!!

   What chance have we got if the local parks teams dont know what they are doing.

   8/7/08

Leave a Reply