Toni Leland
Travel along any of Connecticut's beautiful scenic highways and byways in early to late fall and you'll see huge patches of plants with large green leaves and feathery white flowers. This is the dreaded Japanese Knotweed aka Polygonum cuspidatum, and it is a serious problem across the state.
This fast spreading plant thrives in many environments, but does spectacularly well in full sun and along streams and roadsides. The stands of knotweed are large, the plants are tall, and they shade out the native plants that we want. Every year, local garden groups gather volunteers to go out and hack away at this menace, which is not an easy task.
One would think that just digging up this alien might be the answer, but it only encourages it; like many types of crabgrass, knotweed has underground rhizomes and if chopped up, the small bits left behind simply grown new plants.
Knotweed isn't usually a problem in our home gardens, but if you want to contribute to the environmental health of our state, check out the local extension office to see where you might volunteer in this war against the aliens.
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