Japanese Knotweed spread
A serious theat and a house buyers or property investors nightmare.
Five years ago the Environmental Agency launched an app called Plant Tracker to map the spread of all invasive weeds.
According to my gardening mag. last month it hit a milestone, with more than 20,000 people having downloaded it, and 6,000 Japanese Knotweed trouble-spots highlighted in the UK.
High concentrations of this dreaded weed have been reported in South Wales, London, Manchester, Leeds, Sheffield, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Newcastle on Tyne, Birmingham and the southern tip of Cornwall.
Now, web-cam users can examine areas street-by-street, and see where knotweed has been reported in their neighbourhoods.
This weed can breach brick walls, come up through tarmac, damage foundations, and even get in to homes.
Mortgage lenders can refuse to approve a loan on a property, and house buyers will often pull out if a survey detects the presence of knotweed - even it it is in nearby countryside.
Japanese Knotweed was introduced to the UK by the Victorians as an ornamental plant. It was even used to stabilize embankments of canals and railways.
You can go to -
http://planttracker.org.uk
if you want to see the plant tracker map.