Fallopia japonica is a herbaceous perennial with stems typically about 2m tall and an extensive system of rhizomes. It has large, roughly triangular leaves with truncate bases. Japanese knotweed is an invasive non-native plant, mainly growing in urban areas where it is considered a weed because the plants is regrowing from rhizomes and in some cases can come up through gaps in flooring. Its preferred locations to grow are urban areas, river banks and waste ground, usually in full sunshine. It is not shade tolerant and does not persist in woods.
I found this species in Platt Fields Park where it was overgrowing a medium size fence and is now covered by its dense branch formation. The plant started to turn into autumn orange-yellow colours and already lost a lot of leaves. There is no bark but instead the plant has tall stems that have purple flecks as shown on the photos below. Fallopia has creamy white flowers which bloom in the late summer till early autumn and grow up to 15cm. The last photograph shows the remainings after the flowers.
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