Fallopia
Encyclopedia
Fallopia is a genus of about 12–15 species of flowering plant
s in the family Polygonaceae
, often included in a wider treatment of the related genus Polygonum
in the past. The genus is native to temperate and subtropical regions of the Northern Hemisphere
. The genus includes herbaceous
perennial plant
s, herbaceous vine
s, and wood
y vines.
Several species are serious invasive weeds
, notably Japanese knotweed in Europe and North America (see below).
The genus is named after Gabriello Fallopio, or Fallopius, who was the superintendent of the botanical garden
at Padua
. He was also an acclaimed anatomist, being considered a founder of modern anatomy
along with Vesalius
and Eustachius
.
Fallopia species are used as food plants by the larva
e of some Lepidoptera
species including Coleophora therinella
(recorded on F. convolvulus).
Fallopia × conollyana
(F. baldschuanica × F. japonica) is called railway-yard knotweed.
Many knotweed species, particularly Japanese knotweed
, giant knotweed and Himalayan knotweed are considered noxious, invasive
pests. Like many such weeds, Japanese knotweed was introduced from Japan
first into the U.K.
, then into North America
in the 19th century as an ornamental plant
.
Some knotweeds grow extremely quickly during the spring; giant knotweed can reach 4.5 m by summer, Japanese knotweed 3 m, and "dwarf" Himalayan knotweed 1.5–2 m. In Japan, Japanese knotweed is known as itadori, or "strong plant". Some species can spread rapidly from an extensive network of rhizome
s (roots that can sprout) spreading from 7–20 m from the parent plant and at least 2 m deep. Root and stem fragments as small as 1 cm can form new plant colonies. Floods and high water events wash whole or partial plants into rivers and creeks, dispersing pieces of knotweed throughout the flooded area and banks, which give rise to new plants. As with other invasive species of plants, freshly disturbed soil
allows the rapidly growing young knotweed plants to outgrow other plants and take over the area, suppressing other species. Cutting, mowing, digging and some herbicide
treatments, especially in early to mid growing season, fail to curb knotweed growth and in fact often stimulate the production of shoots from latent buds dispersed on the root crown or rhizomes.
is currently under study in a number of research projects investigating its reputedly powerful antiaging properties.
Flowering plant
The flowering plants , also known as Angiospermae or Magnoliophyta, are the most diverse group of land plants. Angiosperms are seed-producing plants like the gymnosperms and can be distinguished from the gymnosperms by a series of synapomorphies...
s in the family Polygonaceae
Polygonaceae
Polygonaceae is a family of flowering plants known informally as the "knotweed family" or "smartweed family"— "buckwheat family" in the United States. The name is based on the genus Polygonum and was first used by Antoine Laurent de Jussieu in 1789 in his book, Genera Plantarum. The name refers...
, often included in a wider treatment of the related genus Polygonum
Polygonum
Polygonum is a genus in the Polygonaceae family. Common names include knotweed, knotgrass, bistort, tear-thumb, mile-a-minute, and several others. In the Middle English glossary of herbs "Alphita" , it was known as ars-smerte. There have been various opinions about how broadly the genus should be...
in the past. The genus is native to temperate and subtropical regions of the Northern Hemisphere
Northern Hemisphere
The Northern Hemisphere is the half of a planet that is north of its equator—the word hemisphere literally means “half sphere”. It is also that half of the celestial sphere north of the celestial equator...
. The genus includes herbaceous
Herbaceous
A herbaceous plant is a plant that has leaves and stems that die down at the end of the growing season to the soil level. They have no persistent woody stem above ground...
perennial plant
Perennial plant
A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives for more than two years. The term is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter lived annuals and biennials. The term is sometimes misused by commercial gardeners or horticulturalists to describe only herbaceous perennials...
s, herbaceous vine
Vine
A vine in the narrowest sense is the grapevine , but more generally it can refer to any plant with a growth habit of trailing or scandent, that is to say climbing, stems or runners...
s, and wood
Wood
Wood is a hard, fibrous tissue found in many trees. It has been used for hundreds of thousands of years for both fuel and as a construction material. It is an organic material, a natural composite of cellulose fibers embedded in a matrix of lignin which resists compression...
y vines.
Several species are serious invasive weeds
Invasive species
"Invasive species", or invasive exotics, is a nomenclature term and categorization phrase used for flora and fauna, and for specific restoration-preservation processes in native habitats, with several definitions....
, notably Japanese knotweed in Europe and North America (see below).
The genus is named after Gabriello Fallopio, or Fallopius, who was the superintendent of the botanical garden
Botanical garden
A botanical garden The terms botanic and botanical, and garden or gardens are used more-or-less interchangeably, although the word botanic is generally reserved for the earlier, more traditional gardens. is a well-tended area displaying a wide range of plants labelled with their botanical names...
at Padua
Padua
Padua is a city and comune in the Veneto, northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Padua and the economic and communications hub of the area. Padua's population is 212,500 . The city is sometimes included, with Venice and Treviso, in the Padua-Treviso-Venice Metropolitan Area, having...
. He was also an acclaimed anatomist, being considered a founder of modern anatomy
Anatomy
Anatomy is a branch of biology and medicine that is the consideration of the structure of living things. It is a general term that includes human anatomy, animal anatomy , and plant anatomy...
along with Vesalius
Vesalius
Andreas Vesalius was a Flemish anatomist, physician, and author of one of the most influential books on human anatomy, De humani corporis fabrica . Vesalius is often referred to as the founder of modern human anatomy. Vesalius is the Latinized form of Andries van Wesel...
and Eustachius
Bartolomeo Eustachi
Bartolomeo Eustachi , also known by his Latin name of Eustachius, was one of the founders of the science of human anatomy.-Life:...
.
Fallopia species are used as food plants by the larva
Larva
A larva is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into adults. Animals with indirect development such as insects, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase of their life cycle...
e of some Lepidoptera
Lepidoptera
Lepidoptera is a large order of insects that includes moths and butterflies . It is one of the most widespread and widely recognizable insect orders in the world, encompassing moths and the three superfamilies of butterflies, skipper butterflies, and moth-butterflies...
species including Coleophora therinella
Coleophora
Coleophora is a very large genus of moths of the family Coleophoridae. It contains some 1,350 described species. The genus is represented on all continents, but the majority are found in the Nearctic and Palaearctic regions...
(recorded on F. convolvulus).
Species
- Fallopia baldschuanicaFallopia baldschuanicaFallopia baldschuanica is a species of flowering plant in the knotweed family known by several common names, including Russian vine, Bukhara fleeceflower, Chinese fleecevine, mile-a-minute and silver lace vine...
Russian vine; mile-a-minute vine; China fleece vine; fleece flower; silver lace vine (syn. Fallopia aubertii, Polygonum baldschuanicum, Polygonum aubertii). Eastern AsiaAsiaAsia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
. - Fallopia cilinodis fringed black bindweed (syn. Polygonum cilinode, Bilderdykia cilinodis). North AmericaNorth AmericaNorth America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
. - Fallopia convolvulus Black-bindweed (syn. Polygonum convolvulus, Bilderdykia convolvulus). EuropeEuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, Asia, northern AfricaAfricaAfrica is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
.
- F. convolvulus var. subalatum
- Fallopia cynanchoides (syn. Polygonum cynanchoides). Western ChinaChinaChinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
. - Fallopia dentatoalata (syn. Polygonum dentatoalatum). Eastern Asia.
- Fallopia denticulata (syn. Polygonum denticulatum). Southern China.
- Fallopia dumetorum copse bindweed (syn. Polygonum dumetorum, Bilderdykia dumetorum). Europe, Asia, northern Africa.
- Fallopia forbesii (syn. Polygonum forbesii). Northern China, KoreaKoreaKorea ) is an East Asian geographic region that is currently divided into two separate sovereign states — North Korea and South Korea. Located on the Korean Peninsula, Korea is bordered by the People's Republic of China to the northwest, Russia to the northeast, and is separated from Japan to the...
. - Fallopia japonica Japanese knotweed (syn. Polygonum cuspidatum, Polygonum japonicum, Polygonum reynoutria, Reynoutria japonica). Eastern Asia.
- Fallopia cynanchoides (syn. Polygonum cynanchoides). Western China
- F.japonica var. compacta
- F.japonica var. compacta f. rosea Hort.
- Fallopia multifloraFallopia multifloraFallopia multiflora is a species of Fallopia native to central and southern China.It is a herbaceous perennial vine growing to 2–4 m tall from a woody tuber. The leaves are 3–7 cm long and 2–5 cm broad, broad arrowhead-shaped, with an entire margin...
(syn. Polygonum multiflorum). Eastern Asia.
- Fallopia multiflora
- F.japonica var. compacta f. rosea Hort.
- F. multiflora var. hypoleuca.
- Fallopia pterocarpa (syn. Polygonum pterocarpum). Southern Asia.
- Fallopia sachalinensisFallopia sachalinensisFallopia sachalinensis Fallopia sachalinensis Fallopia sachalinensis (Giant Knotweed or Sakhalin Knotweed Japanese オオイタドリ ooitadori, Russian Горец сахалинский, Гречиха сахалинская; syn...
giant knotweed (syn. Polygonum sachalinense, Reynoutria sachalinensis). Eastern SiberiaSiberiaSiberia is an extensive region constituting almost all of Northern Asia. Comprising the central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, it was part of the Soviet Union from its beginning, as its predecessor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, conquered it during the 16th...
. - Fallopia scandens. North America.
Hybrids
Crosses between Japanese knotweed and giant knotweed have occurred where the two species grow in close proximity. The hybrid, Fallopia × bohemica (syn. Polygonum × bohemicum) is known as Bohemian knotweed.Fallopia × conollyana
Fallopia × conollyana
Haringey Knotweed is a hybrid between the Russian vine and the Japanese knotweed. The only known wild British population of this remarkable plant was discovered by David Bevan at Railway Fields in 1987. It is also known as the Railway-yard knotweed....
(F. baldschuanica × F. japonica) is called railway-yard knotweed.
Invasive species
Japanese knotweed
Japanese Knotweed is a large, herbaceous perennial plant, native to eastern Asia in Japan, China and Korea...
, giant knotweed and Himalayan knotweed are considered noxious, invasive
Invasive species
"Invasive species", or invasive exotics, is a nomenclature term and categorization phrase used for flora and fauna, and for specific restoration-preservation processes in native habitats, with several definitions....
pests. Like many such weeds, Japanese knotweed was introduced from Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
first into the U.K.
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, then into North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
in the 19th century as an ornamental plant
Ornamental plant
Ornamental plants are plants that are grown for decorative purposes in gardens and landscape design projects, as house plants, for cut flowers and specimen display...
.
Some knotweeds grow extremely quickly during the spring; giant knotweed can reach 4.5 m by summer, Japanese knotweed 3 m, and "dwarf" Himalayan knotweed 1.5–2 m. In Japan, Japanese knotweed is known as itadori, or "strong plant". Some species can spread rapidly from an extensive network of rhizome
Rhizome
In botany and dendrology, a rhizome is a characteristically horizontal stem of a plant that is usually found underground, often sending out roots and shoots from its nodes...
s (roots that can sprout) spreading from 7–20 m from the parent plant and at least 2 m deep. Root and stem fragments as small as 1 cm can form new plant colonies. Floods and high water events wash whole or partial plants into rivers and creeks, dispersing pieces of knotweed throughout the flooded area and banks, which give rise to new plants. As with other invasive species of plants, freshly disturbed soil
Soil
Soil is a natural body consisting of layers of mineral constituents of variable thicknesses, which differ from the parent materials in their morphological, physical, chemical, and mineralogical characteristics...
allows the rapidly growing young knotweed plants to outgrow other plants and take over the area, suppressing other species. Cutting, mowing, digging and some herbicide
Herbicide
Herbicides, also commonly known as weedkillers, are pesticides used to kill unwanted plants. Selective herbicides kill specific targets while leaving the desired crop relatively unharmed. Some of these act by interfering with the growth of the weed and are often synthetic "imitations" of plant...
treatments, especially in early to mid growing season, fail to curb knotweed growth and in fact often stimulate the production of shoots from latent buds dispersed on the root crown or rhizomes.
Medicinal properties
Recently, Japanese knotweed (Fallopia japonica, syn. Polygonum japonicum, Polygonum cuspidatum, Reynoutria japonica) and others have been used to exploit their high concentrations of trans-resveratrol in the plants' stalks. Previously associated with and identified mainly in the skins of red grapes, resveratrolResveratrol
Resveratrol is a stilbenoid, a type of natural phenol, and a phytoalexin produced naturally by several plants when under attack by pathogens such as bacteria or fungi....
is currently under study in a number of research projects investigating its reputedly powerful antiaging properties.
External links
- Species Profile - Japanese Knotweed (Fallopia japonica), National Invasive Species Information Center, National Agricultural LibraryUnited States National Agricultural LibraryThe United States National Agricultural Library is one of the world's largest agricultural research libraries, and serves as a National Library of the United States and as the library of the United States Department of Agriculture...
. Lists general information and resources for Japanese knotweed. - Japanese Knotweed Alliance (UK)
- Recipes from "Wildman" Steve Brill
- Strategies for the Eradication of Japanese Knotweed.
- Japanese Knotweed (Polygonum cuspidatum) - A Noxious Weed in Washington
- Knotweed page on KnottyBits.com
- Cornwall Knotweed Forum
- http://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profiles0604/japanese_knotweed.aspControl advice from the Royal Horticultural SocietyRoyal Horticultural SocietyThe Royal Horticultural Society was founded in 1804 in London, England as the Horticultural Society of London, and gained its present name in a Royal Charter granted in 1861 by Prince Albert...
] - Adive on the Eradication of Japanese Knotweed