Japanese Knotweed #invasive #plant #risk #building #issues #foundations #knotweed #foraging #outdoor

Added: 2026-05-06

[00:00:00]Introducing the highly invasive foundation riverside [music] ruining Japanese knotweed. This highly invasive plant has got a very very very bad rep. A old Victorian botanist German British botanist found a pioneering plant that grows out [music] of solidified magma and decided to bring it back and plant it in a nursery. Introduced to initially decorate gardens used and planted on [music] slag heaps to hold things together with building railway lines happened. Often listed as a item that [music] can void your mortgage if you don't deal with it properly. Also known as donkey rhubarb. It's actually edible.

[00:00:39]The name donkey rhubarb gives you a little bit of a nod but it tastes a bit like rhubarb that has a bit oxalic [music] acid content and has a nice sort of earthy flavor. But the problem is is that it's highly invasive. So if you break it at the root and drop it over there, it's going to re-root and plant over there. Works on rhizomes [music] so that's stems under the ground shooting up. So it can just keep on going. And all down this river it's just taking out the banks, destroying all of these habitats and actually changing [music] the pace of the river as it flows as well. But there's some evidence that suggests they're very very useful. One of the scientific [music] studies is on Lyme disease and it's a potential remedy for that. It's got resveratrol which is tested [music] as being anti-carcinogenic. Seen as a superfood in some countries where they have it native. Here it's just damned and talked about in this highly negative way. Is it as bad [music] as they say it is? Yes.

[00:01:27]Let's go.