Do i have knotweed?!

[mudcow007]

hello all

about 3 months ago I received about 25 tonne of soil from a friend of a friend (long story cut short) to level out my rear garden.

I have moved about half of it so the rest of it is still sitting in my front garden. recently there has a been a explosion of growth of weeds within the pile of soil (in the front garden) an what has started to grow is worrying me

the weeds/ plants are tubular (you can crush the stem between you thumb an finger) and hollow, the stem is green with red flecks like knotweed, the leaves are more pointed than all the other knotweeds i have seen. one thing to note is that on all of the leaves there is a black spot in the centre of all the leaves

most of the plants seem to coming into flower, with red tiny flowers not yet open

i know an id is differcult without a pic i will upload one tonight

does it sound like knotweed?!??

thanks

[echinosum]

Japanese knotweed has creamy white flowers, though I haven't been able to work out if they might look red when still in bud.

Still the black spot in the centre of the leaf makes this sounds a lot more like Persicaria maculosa, which is noted for having a black spot in the centre of the leaf. Though it is a rather smaller plant than J knotweed.

[Stewart Robert Hinsley]

In message , mudcow007 writes

A black spot in the centre of the leaves is a field mark for Persicaria maculosa (redshank). This is not the dreaded Fallopia japonica (Japanese knotweed); but might well be included within then rubric of knotweed.

However, it's a lot easier to control that Japanese knotweed. It's commonly an annual arable weed. You control it by pulling it up, or by hoeing.

Japanese knotweed has white flowers; redshank commonly has deep pink flowers, but there are white and red forms. If you look at the structure of the inflorescence, you'll find that this is different as well; the inflorescence of Japanese knotweed is a spray, that of redshank a spike.

[mudcow007]

Many thanks for your replies

after searching through Google for "redshank" it is indeed what i have. It was the stem that made me panic as (to me) it closely resembles Knotweed

i have pulled most of the plants that have sprung up (it filled a wheely bin!!) an used glusophate on the rest

thanks for the help!