{"id":15751,"date":"2025-07-22T15:30:08","date_gmt":"2025-07-22T15:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/15751\/"},"modified":"2025-07-22T15:30:08","modified_gmt":"2025-07-22T15:30:08","slug":"japanese-knotweed-hotspots-across-norfolk-revealed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/15751\/","title":{"rendered":"Japanese knotweed hotspots across Norfolk revealed"},"content":{"rendered":"

\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

\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 Norfolk Broads.<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

\n 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

\n 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

\n It trumps King’s Lynn, which has only had 71 reports of Japanese knotweed so far.\n<\/p>\n

\n Fakenham has had 33 sightings, Great Yarmouth has had 28\u00a0and Dereham has had 25.\n<\/p>\n

\n READ MORE:\u00a0Busy city road shutting for essential works<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

\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

\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

\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…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15752,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[1397,90,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-15751","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15751","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15751"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15751\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15752"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}