{"id":282916,"date":"2025-07-22T16:10:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-22T16:10:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/282916\/"},"modified":"2025-07-22T16:10:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-22T16:10:10","slug":"japanese-knotweed-hotspots-across-norfolk-revealed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/282916\/","title":{"rendered":"Japanese knotweed hotspots across Norfolk revealed"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n  The species is\u00a0native to East Asia and was introduced to the UK in the 1800s, where it has since spread out of control.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  It can grow up to four inches a day and forms dense thickets which can kill native plant species, making it particularly harmful to the flora of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.greatyarmouthmercury.co.uk\/news\/25328273.rnli-events-norfolk-broads-promote-water-safety\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Norfolk Broads.<\/a>\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  <img   style=\"width: 100%;\"\/>Norwich is the biggest hotspot for Japanese knotweed in 2025 so far (Image: Environet) Environet has been mapping the places with the highest rate of knotweed reports in Norfolk.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eveningnews24.co.uk\/news\/25330164.baton-hope-suicide-prevention-event-coming-norwich\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Norwich<\/a> has had the highest number of reports by far, with an area\u00a0around the city having 301 sightings\u00a0of the invasive plant this year.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  It trumps King&#8217;s Lynn, which has only had 71 reports of Japanese knotweed so far.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Fakenham has had 33 sightings, Great Yarmouth has had 28\u00a0and Dereham has had 25.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  <strong>READ MORE:<\/strong>\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.edp24.co.uk\/news\/25326603.hall-road-norwich-shut-surface-dressing-works\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Busy city road shutting for essential works<\/a>\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Swaffham and Thetford have both seen 14 instances of the invasive plant reported, while Poringland and North Walsham have been invaded by the plant just 13 times.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Knotweed can grow up to three metres deep underground and spread up to seven metres horizontally, seeping through cracks in concrete, driveways and drains.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  A DEFRA report in 2023 estimated the cost of tackling knotweed to the UK economy at nearly \u00a3250 million a year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The species is\u00a0native to East Asia and was introduced to the UK in the 1800s, where it has&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":282917,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3843],"tags":[728,70,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-282916","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-environment","9":"tag-science","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114897762548576750","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282916","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=282916"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282916\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/282917"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=282916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=282916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=282916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}