Mortgage attack: 'I struggled to sell my home because of Japanese knotweed' | Mail Online

Mortgage attack: 'I struggled to sell my home because of Japanese knotweed' | Mail Online

Surveyors and mortgage lenders have joined forces to stem the latest threat to Britain’s ailing housing market, the spread of the pernicious Japanese knotweed that has been dubbed the ‘Attack of the Triffids’.
The Victorians innocently introduced the weed, which in 100 years has aggressively colonised the British Isles. Lush green in summer and bearing plumes of white flowers from now until September, Fallopia japonica seems innocuous enough.
But its dense mat of rhizomes extend relentlessly underground, undermining foundations, piercing walls, floors and plumbing. It is almost impossible to kill because a fragment of its cut flesh can generate a thriving new plant within days.