What does it look like? April 23, 2015

There are inevitably major differences in the habit and appearance of plants in their native and non-native situations, and Japanese Knotweed is no exception.

The first point of contrast is the relative abundance of the dwarf mountain growing varieties in Japan. In the West – although occasionally appearing as a garden plant Fallopia japonica var compacta is very rarely found as a naturalised plant. The only sizeable naturalised stands are at Connel Ferry and North Ledaig in Scotland – whereas in Japan it is found on most of the volcanic mountains.

There are a variety of reasons why this particular variety has colonised the volcanic lava fields;

The plants produce copious amounts of seed – which regularly germinate

The plants grow as discrete circular stands with little evidence of lateral spread

The rhizomes when exposed – appear to grow straight down rather than laterally
This adaption helps – since lateral rhizomes near the surface would be destroyed by new deposits of hot ash or lava. Rhizomes growing deeply can protect and save the plants reserves providing the resource to grow through any new layer of lava/ash that is deposited. At the summit of Mt Aso – the only plant growing was Fallopia japonica var compacta – and on the pumice fields of Mt Fuiji it was the major coloniser.

In Britain and Northern Europe Fallopia japonica is the dominant feature of the ecosystems which it occupies. Growth is typically clonal and vegetative spread – aided by human activities – can lead to the formation of very extensive colonies up to 3 metres in height.

These huge colonies remain untouched by the local invertebrate predators and towering above the native vegetation. Flowering is in late autumn and usually very profuse, and followed in the absence of an early frost by a heavy seed set in areas within pollination distance of F.baldschuanica or a male fertile F x bohemica or F. sachalinensis. The main habitats are ruderal or waterside locations, the latter allowing the down-stream spread of vegetative propagules, usually rhizome fragments – but cut stems may also regenerate.

Mike C

What’s important to you? April 23, 2015

It’s a fairly simple question but the answers will vary dramatically from person to person. Family, friends, holidays, pets, comfort, security, money, cars….and maybe on a few peoples lists….’the environment’. I know that I prattle on about the same things in these blogs but maybe if I keep repeating myself then perhaps people will eventually take notice?

I have concluded after many years of travelling the country talking to various groups of people – that most people just don’t think about the longer term issues with the world around them? I’m being very sweeping in these statements here – but most ‘young’ people (…within the term ‘young’ – I cover anybody younger than me…which is getting to be most of the people I ever come across) want somewhere to live and play on their X-Box, perhaps someone to live/love with, some form of transport …and enough money to eat, drink and take recreational drugs (I include alcohol within the term ‘recreational drugs’)….and that’s pretty much it.

Talking to them about politics or the state of the world’s economy is a difficult one…but try and get them interested in the state of the world’s plant bio-diversity and you have a difficult ‘sell’ on your hands.

Now don’t get me wrong – I know that there are people far better qualified and experienced with these issues than I am – and a lot of them are far younger than me. But I’m not talking here about the people studying at university or scientists within government funded organisations …I’m talking about Joe Blogs…the man in the street…the everyday bloke….how do you get the general population to sit up and take note?

How can you get ‘the public’ to be interested in invasive non-native species?

It would appear there is an answer to that question and the answer is probably money.

If the …’general public’…think that their ‘pocket’ is going to be affected by these plant invasions then they seem to get very hot under the collar about the issues involved and suddenly everyone sits up and takes notice.

Over the last ten years or so I’ve been writing and talking about problem plants and ‘countryside disappearing under swathes of invasive non-native plants’ and nobody has taken much notice* – (*apart from the odd housing developer who suddenly finds himself with a problem costing him hundred’s of thousands of pounds).

However…recently with the advent of anti-social behaviour orders with fines of up to £2000 and Species Control Orders where the Environment Agency can come on to your land to deal with these problem species ….suddenly everyone wants to talk about how we stop these ‘alien’ invaders. Newspapers line up to tell horror stories of building being demolished and Television studios want footage of the… ‘elderly lady turned down for a mortgage because of Japanese Knotweed’.

So suddenly I find myself not as the owner of …‘Japanese WHAT….weed Solutions???’ …but the owner of ‘Japanese Knotweed Solutions’…. ‘aaaah yes that’s the plant that will destroy a house’…

So whilst the above statement isn’t exactly true…I’m happy to live with this perception… if it will make people sit up and take notice of what’s going on in the world around them? Maybe some financial penalties or cost implications will save our ever shrinking ‘native’ countryside from being over-run with invasive non-native species??? ….and maybe on people lists of what’s important to them….we will start to include our native plants and our British Countryside?

Mike C

It’s the end of the world… April 23, 2015

So today the server went down and yes, it did feel like the end of the world. For a business 1 day with no internet felt like an eternity. Panic set in -How do we get work done? How do we communicate? We are cut off from the world!

If you take a minute, sit back and think, everything we do revolves around the internet.

If we went back to the 1980’s before the internet would we be able to cope? Would businesses survive? Experts say this would be worse than a natural disaster.

There are some benefits from being offline like putting on the marigolds and having an early spring clean in the office, sorting out the pile of paperwork that’s been growing at the end of your desk and sharpening all your blunt pencils.

Positives of the internet do outweigh the negatives. We use the internet to market the business, interact with each other, use the search engines and keep on top of the daily news. There are many disadvantages such as people can post anything on the internet; there is a lot of incorrect information. The web has given us many things but has taken away the social interaction.

What did we do in back in the pre internet days? People talked face to face and over the phone, things were filed and lost, letters were written and the pile of paperwork at the end of the desk grew bigger and bigger!

The internet is a wonderful thing but all in all, if the internet world went down…….the world would not stop.

Ruth Bates

The railway Knotweed children April 23, 2015

Several years ago I found a strange looking plant on a site in Bolton near to the railway line, it looked like Japanese knotweed but also exhibited some of the characteristics of Polygonum baldschuanica (Russian vine – also known as the ‘mile a minute’).

I rang my contacts at the Environment Agency who weren’t particularly interested, then I rang DEFRA who simply said … ‘kill it, kill it now’.

I now suspect that this was Fallopia x conollyana – the ‘Railway Yard Knotweed’.

The first record of the plant was in Wales in 1983 as an open pollinated seed from F. japonica and subsequently confirmed by artificial hybridization the same year (Bailey and Conolly 1984). Whilst there was huge amounts of seed pollinated by F. baldschuanica on F. japonica plants it was not until 1987 that a plant of some considerable size was found in Haringey. Since that date there have not been any confirmed sightings of further hybrids as established plants in the Brirtish Isles – however there are increasing reports of the hybrid in continental Europe.

This hybrid between Fallopia japonica and F.baldschuanica has been known to exist in Britain as seed since 1983 and as an established plant since 1986. Over the past fifteen to twenty years there have been a number of reports of this hybrid from Europe both as open-pollinated seed on F. japonica plants and as established plants.

Technically Fallopia conollyana is an unlikely combination with its parents having contrasting growth forms and over winter strategies. F. japonica is a herbaceous perennial which stores reserves in underground stems or rhizomes whilst F. baldschuanica is a deciduous woody perennial that stores reserves in woody overground stems. Hence F. conollyana may fall between two camps in terms of resource portioning for over winter – which may be the reason for its failure to establish more generally in the British Isles.

Although huge amounts of seed are produced every year by F. Japonica throughout Europe bearing F. x conollyana embryos only a minute proportion of them seem ever to have germinated and become established naturally. It is theorised that for this to occur the following would be required;

A long warm Autumn – for maximum seed ripening

Followed by a cold winter – to stop the seed from rotting

Followed by a warm winter – for seedlings to survive the all-important first winter

Probably a rare thing in the UK – RARE BUT NOT IMPOSSIBLE!

Mike C

Ref : Fallopia x conollyana – J.P.Bailey

It’s the end of the world… April 23, 2015

If you take a minute, sit back and think, everything we do revolves around the internet.

If we went back to the 1980’s before the internet would we be able to cope? Would businesses survive? Experts say this would be worse than a natural disaster.

The internet is a wonderful thing but all in all, if the internet world went down…….the world would not stop.

Ruth Bates

I see dead things… April 23, 2015

Ok …I might not actually see ‘dead things’ like the character in M Night Shayamalan’s film ‘Sixth Sense’ …but I do tend to see things a little differently than most people I come across. This can lead to some people getting their backs up about my sense of humour and my marketing strategies.

Within my current presentation I have a clip from the film ‘Alien’ where the ‘creature’ forces its way out of the stomach of John Hurt – absolute classic bit of film making and much talked about subject within film blogs (*supposedly the director Ridley Scott didn’t tell the actors that he would be spraying them with blood and guts so that their reaction to the horror would be more visceral).

In my head I see a connection:

Alien = alien species

Alien species = Japanese knotweed

The Alien in the film is very difficult to kill = so is Japanese Knotweed

The Alien in the film just keeps coming back whatever you do to it = so does Japanese Knotweed

The line in the film is ‘don’t touch it, don’t touch it…’ = very appropriate for Japanese Knotweed

The film ‘Alien’ is a horror story = so is an infestation of Japanese Knotweed

So…in my head there is a connection between the film and the ‘alien’ species which we are trying to manage and control.

I …AM.. NOT… SUGGESTING …that Japanese Knotweed – is a flesh eating monster from space…. I’m simply trying to create a memory within people’s heads that triggers when they see Japanese Knotweed!

We have also used the theme of ‘Zombies’ and the ‘Undead’ within our marketing strategies. This isn’t meant to suggest that … ‘the end of the world is nigh’ …it’s simply a play on a theme. Zombies and the ‘undead’ come back to haunt you after you think they are dead – shoot them, stab them, burn them and bury them deep in the ground….yet they still come back to cause you problems – just like Japanese Knotweed does…

So please everybody don’t take the marketing too seriously, it’s not meant to be taken literally…its meant to bring a little bit of graveyard humour to a serious topic…

…and on that note – please look out for the launch of our latest campaign

’28 Weeks Later’…

Notorious… April 23, 2015

Japanese Knotweed is notorious for many things but perhaps its greatest claim to fame is its skill at colonizing new ground. Japanese Knotweed is native to Japan, Korea and China and was introduced to Britain in the 1850’s. It had an exotic appearance and grew easily making it an ideal ornamental species. Its rapidity of growth and solid wall of green vegetation made it an ideal candidate for screening purposes and its huge root system made it beneficial in loose soil situations where it was used to stabilize embankments on both rivers and railways.

Its decline in reputation was not sensationalized but was more of a gradual sink into notoriety. Its rapid spread and ability to withstand eradication attempts made it the centre of dire warnings issued by the Royal Horticultural Society in 1905 when they stated that it should only be planted in … ‘the most carefully managed situations’.

The first recorded ‘escape’ from cultivation was in 1886 (Storrie 1886) yet by 1996 it had been recorded in 1584 of the 2862 x 10km squares of the Biological Records Centre of the British Isles. It is regarded as … ‘the most pernicious alien weed in the British Isles’ and since 1981 under the Wildlife and Countryside Act it has been a criminal offence to knowingly introduce Japanese Knotweed into the wild.

What is most amazing about the rapid and aggressive spread of Japanese Knotweed is that it appears to have been done purely by vegetative propagation. Japanese Knotweed is gynodiocious – occurring as hermaphrodite and male sterile plants. Although both types occur in its natural range, in Britain only male sterile plants (female) are known (Bailey 1994)- this implies that the British populations of Japanese Knotweed have no capacity for perpetuation by seed which means the genetic base of these populations must be severely limited.

There are still questions unanswered about the genetic diversity of Japanese Knotweed in Britain not least of which is whether the plant is multi-clonal?

There are many (clones) of Japanese Knotweed Solutions Ltd… who are now trading in the business of eradicating this troublesome plant…. but how many of them bother to even identify which type of Japanese Knotweed it is that they are attempting to eradicate?

Studies are being carried out by the likes of Professor John Bailey at the Unversity of Leicester – (though John has now retired) – looking at the genetic variability between introduced populations and native populations. Preliminary results have shown a large amount of diversity within native populations – with none precisely matching the introduced plants in Europe and the USA.

Whilst this may all seem a bit overkill – and many would say let’s just eradicate anything that vaguely resembles Japanese knotweed it is vital that we understand the processes that are going on within these invading populations.

The future success and longevity of the Japanese Knotweed ‘invasion’ are difficult to predict. Whilst Japanese Knotweed may lack inter-individual variability it is polyploidal which gives it an evolutionary reprieve from the weaknesses inherent with asexual propagation. Note polyploidy is common to all 18 of the ‘worlds worst weeds’ (Holm 1977).

It should also be noted that the invasive capabilities of Japanese knotweed may increase and the current problems be exacerbated via hybridization. Hybrids between Japanese Knotweed and the related introduced species Giant Knotweed (Fallopia sachalinensis) are now common throughout the British Isles and share the invasive attributes of the former. These hybrids (Fallopia x bohemica) show some fertility – with backcrosses with Japanese Knotweed having been recently documented (Hollingsworth 1998).

Hybridization therefore seems to offer a potential escape from the lack of sexual variation caused by the absence of fertile males in Britain. The introduction of these sexually derived genotypes may thus serve to enhance and ensure the long term survival of this weed invasion.

Father’s Day… April 23, 2015

The recent Invasive Non Native Specialists Association conference turned into a bit of a family day out. A picture of my dad opened the conference whilst Mr Podmore (Richards Dad from Japanese Knotweed Control) helped on their stand… and Conor’s dad manned the Invasive Weed company display.

It made me think that maybe the world isn’t such a bad place and that maybe there is some hope for the future of mankind…

I’m not having a breakdown don’t worry – but I read the papers (children groomed for sex/ plane crash pilot suffered from depression/ ISIS this ISIS that…) and I find myself wondering what values people have any more? How can we possibly save the environment when we can’t even save each other?

. I get incredibly p***ed off when I see McDonalds wrappers thrown casually from car windows. The Snake Pass close to my house is littered with thousands of Big Mac wrappers and happy meal bags left by people who have stopped to admire the view …then left all their rubbish behind.

Who the hell do they think will pick this up?

and given that they have presumably stopped because they like the scenery… will they stop next time ….because the view is now ruined by McDonalds wrappers…?

I end up thinking – if the general populace can’t be bothered picking up their fast food wrappers how will we ever get them to be bothered about the bigger picture with environmental issues? I see family values as being one of the core issues at the heart these problems? My dad brought me up to be obsessed with taking my litter home – he hated smoking and he hated drinking* (*NB…. ok I may have let him down on this one item) ….

My dad (a teacher) had a belief that each element of your early life was a pointer in how you would turn out in later life…

If you smoked behind the bike sheds – you would burn in hell

If you drank alcohol behind the bike shed – ditto

Fornicating behind the bike sheds – you would get venereal disease and ….then burn in hell

Tattoos – unemployable then …burn, burn, burn…

If you didn’t play sport – hell was waiting

He then got a little too focussed on minority groups…

Divorced people, single parent families, ginger people, fat people, thin people, very tall people, very short people….all downward bound…

Now please note – I’M NOT saying he was in any way correct with his beliefs (….and some of them were down right offensive…)….but he did have some sort of point –

…and if I look back at the tattooed, drinking, fornicating crowd from school ….they haven’t been the top achievers – none of them are in parliament and one or two are I am sure being roasted by old Beelzebub as we speak.

So with all this in mind…. I have been thinking about just retiring to my cottage in the Peak District and building a huge wall around the outside – stocking up on tinned food and waiting for the apocalypse to arrive – sod the world, sod the environment I’m looking after number one…

…but after attending the INNSA conference and seeing family values are still alive – and respect for the older members of our society is still something that others see is as important….im back on track.

A side benefit of the seminar ….which also was a great day for those companies wishing to see better standards and a better world for those companies involved with invasive species management.

Mike C

Ps I miss my dad

What are they called, and where are they? April 22, 2015

Fallopia japonica

The presence of Fallopia japonica was recorded in most of the countries of mainland North, Central and Southern Europe (with the exception of Italy, Albania and European Turkey) in 1979. There are very few records from European Russia and the plant is generally absent from the Mediterranean region. It is now known to flourish in parts of Milan, Italy – with climatic influence playing a part in this growth. The plant is regarded as a pest in North and Central Europe and the USA – it also occurs in Canada, Australia and New Zealand – no records have ever been made for Africa or South or Central America.

Fallopia sachalinensis

The European distribution of Fallopia sachalinensis is broadly similar to that of Fallopia japonica but is not so abundant and does not occur quite so far South as Fallopia japonica. It is also reported from the USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand – with an unconfirmed record from a riverside in India.

Fallopia x bohemica

Widely distributed across Northern and Central Europe, but less frequently than its parents. It is well represented and mapped in the Nordic regions. Outside of Europe there are records from North America, New Zealand and Australia. In parts of its range in Central Europe there are regions where it is more common than Fallopia japonica.

On a more local scale there are some towns in Britain where Fallopia bohemica is the predominant knotweed. These occurrences are possibly explained by Fallopia bohemicabeing the first or an early introduction – rendering the subsequent introduction of Fallopia japonica var japonica for horticultural purposes unnecessary.

Less common hybrids

There are also a number of less frequently found hybrids established or found only as seed in Northern Europe.

Fallopia conollyana – although of very limited occurrence is widely distributed across Europe. Established plants are known from England, Germany, France, Hungary and Norway. Open pollinated seed collected from Fallopia japonica in the Czech Republic has also proved to be of this constitution. This seed is highly viable and widely available throughout Europe – though reasons for its lack of establishment are not known.

Seed resulting from pollination by Fallopia baldschuanica has also been collected from open pollinated plants of Fallopia sachalinensis, Fallopia japonica var compacta and Fallopia bohemica growing in the wild in Britain. The intra specific hybrid between Fallopia japonica var japonica and Fallopia japonica var compacta has been found twice in Britain and is also known in Germany.

In addition a variety of back crosses have also been found.

Where is the world heading…? April 22, 2015

As I’m getting older I do find myself thinking…what’s it all about? Through life you meet a variety of people and come across people’s different ways of looking at things….but who is right and who is wrong?

My wife for example, only ever sees the good in people – she accepts people at face value and is pleasant and friendly to everyone she meets – and is by far the nicest person I have ever met…she has no ‘agenda’.

I on the other hand dislike everybody I meet and tend to see bad points rather than good – it takes me ages to actually trust somebody …and my agenda is…of course…. total world domination.

Having said the above – my wife tends to get let down by people and slightly taken advantage of…whereas I can always say … ‘I told you he was a dick’

So which way should my wife and I be voting in the coming election?

I’m struggling because I see each of the party leaders as untrustworthy, yet my wife assures me that they are all honest and …’fighting for the good of the country… as a whole’.

Well I’m sorry but I don’t believe any of it…

…and not only do I not believe in any of them, they are all younger than me and have an air of smugness about them that I just can’t stand.

I suspect that David Cameron would tell you that the world was flat – if he thought would win him the election. Ed Miliband looks unfortunately like a geeky kid I went to school with who regularly cried when things didn’t go his way…and every time I look at him I feel he’s going to well up and blubber.

I’m also finding that I distrust the Scottish politicians who want independence from us …yet feel we should be there to financially subsidize then if things are a little tight? When in history has a broken up group ever been stronger than a unified collective?….

I end up thinking we are all being manipulated by the powers that be, mere plaything s for… ‘the Establishment’ …

So what can be done about this ….?

Currently …NOTHING …so I’m considering standing at the next election.

How can we help?

OR CONTACT US

0161 723 2000 [email protected]