Have you got Japanese Knotweed growing on your property? Well beware because new laws could mean mean you could have to pay up to £2,500 for failing to control the invasive weed.
The Home Office has published a briefing document which suggests that people who fail to control the spread of invasive non-native plants such as Japanese Knotweed could be fined or receive anti-social behaviour orders.
It is not just Japanese Knotweed that is under attack, other species such as Himalayan balsam and giant hogweed can also according to the Hone Office, threaten the UK’s biodiversity by crowding out native species and destabilising river banks. They can also do immense harm to forestry, farms, roads and buildings.
The Japanese weed or to given it its proper name, Fallopia japonica, was introduced from Japan in 1825 as an ornamental plant.
The plant is not unattractive but its rapid annual growth and relentless spread, allows it to easily overwhelm other garden plants and where established as a wayside weed, native plants are also aggressively over-run.
It does not produce seeds, but sprouts from very small sections of rhizomes which, while can be dug out, due to the depth that the rhizomes can penetrate, regrowth usually occurs.
In spring and summer, bamboo-like shoots grow can grow to seven feet tall and produces leaves nearly half a foot in length and the creamy-white flower tassels produced in late summer and early autumn reach up to six inches.
The stems die back to ground level in winter.
The new rules mean that while it is not illegal to have Japanese knotweed in your garden,you should aim to control this plant and to prevent it becoming a problem in your neighbourhood.
If they have a “detrimental effect of a persistant or continuing nature on the quality of life of those in the locality”, the legislation could be used to enforce its control
