ID - Japanese Knotweed

redved

Hi,

I would be very grateful if someone could identify the following plant. My brother thinks it may be Japanese knotweed but hopefully knot

macraignil

redved wrote: »

Hi,

I would be very grateful if someone could identify the following plant. My brother thinks it may be Japanese knotweed but hopefully knot

It looks like Leycesteria formosa (pheasant berry).

redved

Thanks very much for taking the time to identify it. Puts my mind at ease as definitely did not want the hassle of dealing with knotweed

Outkast_IRE

Is the photo taken recently ? I think alot of the knotweed has died right back at this time of year.

macraignil

Outkast_IRE wrote: »

Is the photo taken recently ? I think alot of the knotweed has died right back at this time of year.

It is a photo of pheasant berry. It is not knotweed. My pheasant berry plant looks similar at the moment and has edible berries on it. I got it because I think having plants in the garden with fruit is good for wildlife. I have read it said that they can be cut back in the winter and allowed to regrow but I didn't see any point in doing this and its still growing well(actually a bit bigger than I was expecting). I've just recently seen some seedlings in the garden that look like pheasant berry so hoping I have a few more to plant around the garden now. I tried propagating from the fruit last year but only got one to sprout so it's great to find a few that have propagated themselves. I heard before of some seeds that prefer to pass through the guts of animals that eat the fruit before sprouting and maybe pheasant berry are an example of this. They taste OK when ripe but the redder smaller fruit is a bit bitter, but this might vary from plant to plant from what I have read about them. link to website

looksee

Firstly, you will have pheasant berry all over the garden...and secondly, do cut out the old canes, it grows with the same enthusiasm as buddleia. And root out any suckers you don't want too, at an early stage. Its a very attractive plant but really enthusiastic!

macraignil

looksee wrote: »

Firstly, you will have pheasant berry all over the garden...and secondly, do cut out the old canes, it grows with the same enthusiasm as buddleia. And root out any suckers you don't want too, at an early stage. Its a very attractive plant but really enthusiastic!

Thanks for the warning about that but prefer to grow enthusiastic plants myself. I'd prefer to be trying to control a plant I like than need to give all the extra care required for cultivating plants that are more delicate. Got lots of buddleja growing as well - it's great for the number of butterflies attracted to its flowers and found dead heading the older flowers this year really extended the flowering(tip from Gardener's world on BBC).

My pheasant berry is growing in a rocky north facing garden as well so I need something enthusiastic to have any chance of making a nice garden. The plants I chose for near the pheasant berry are large shrubs/small trees so I don't understand why I should cut it back. It's normal growth height should still be less than the neighbors I planted (myrtle, philadelphus, oak, cercis siliquestrum, himalayan strawberry tree and cornus alba Siberica). Not seen any suckers from it yet but this might be due to their being so little soil.

looksee

Only reason for cutting it back is to improve the quality of the leaves and flowers. The old canes tend to get straggly, and it will even encourage it to grow!

redved

Outkast_IRE wrote: »

Is the photo taken recently ? I think alot of the knotweed has died right back at this time of year.

just seeing this now, the photo was taken on Monday afternoon so was only a few hours old when I posted it