Easily confused with : Flower [a plant of similar name]

Not to be confused with : Russian Knapweed, Russian Mustard, Russian Cinquefoil, Russian Lettuce, Russian Comfrey, Grape Vine or Chilean Potato-vine [plants with similar names]

Some similarities to : Black Bindweed but that grows very much shorter, is an annual rather than a perennial, and has much smaller flowers with many more tepals than flowers.

Uniquely identifiable characteristics

Distinguishing Feature :

When grown in gardens, this plant can be very troublesome, rampantly growing so tall as to cover the house and block out the windows or cause damage. It can easily climb up to two storeys high.

A member of the Dock and Knotweed Family it exhibits characteristics of both: it has tepals like docks and it has sheaths on the stems at every node like Knotgrasses. But the leaves are more characteristic of Bindweeds and Knotweeds than Dock. Indeed, it shares the same Genus name Fallopia with Japanese Knotweed, Giant Knotweed, Black Bindweed, and Copse-Bindweed. The flower trusses, from afar, resemble those of Japanese Knotweed and some other members of the same Genus.

Habitat includes gardens, but is often naturalised in hedges, in scrub and on cliffs. Unlike its cousin Japanese Knotweed it does not spread rampantly or un-controllably around the countryside, merely grows rampantly upwards or outwards as one plant. It is known as the Mile a Minute Vine with good reason, for it can grow a metre in a week. Random outbreaks are unusual, if it is found 'in the wild' it is probably a throw-out from a garden.

The fruit, in reality an achene, is about 2mm long and shiny black. It is native to the far East such as western China and Tibet.

It is said by some that some cultivated 'varieties' differ from the wild, but Mr. Clive Stace finds no evidence for this.

ANY TEXT GOES HERE