Japanese Knotweed

[Roger B]

Working with nature is always more effective than working against nature. Capitalism would be a form of nature.

There is a lot of "pools" of plastic containers floating in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. We need to find a way to make it economically viable for someone to clean it up. (:->) Perhaps some famous scientist could point out that there is enough plastic containers to make someone a lot of money recycling them.

Roger
________________________________

To: minutus@yahoogroups.com
From: minutus@yahoogroups.com
Date: Sun, 17 May 2015 17:51:37 -0400
Subject: Re: [Minutus] Japanese Knotweed
Thanks to Hurricane Irene, we have more than we can ever use. Roger, you're welcome to come here and dig it up. Not the most effective way of keeping it under control, but persistence has always worked better for me than chemicals.
Peace,
Dale

[Lynn Cremona]

Even though I find no Proving for it

Helios and Freeman's carry the remedy
Polygonum Cuspidatum - Polyg. c. (Japanese Knotweed)
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[Roger B]

Unfortunately, Diana, for some reason that I don't know, some email servers (clients?) don't include anything about what the responder is responding to, so I don't know what you are talking about. I am not ticked off about anything. I certainly didn't mean to hurt your feelings. I will go look at my scores of emails sent and see if I can discover what it is that I said to you that might be construed as an attack. And as far as "incompleteness", I wouldn't put anything past this ding-bat Outlook.com email server that I use to cut off a message. I can see that it decides out of the blue to make some letters really small, and I keep getting all of these error messages every single time that I send or receive things. Also, I almost always am oblivious to the person that I am responding to; I almost always respond to ideas. So you should not take it personally, no matter what I said. I apologize for upsetting you. I will go check as soon as I click "Send" (and immediately get another error message). Contacting Microsoft about my problem is a huge absurdity; they would never respond.

Roger Bird
________________________________

To: minutus@yahoogroups.com
From: minutus@yahoogroups.com
Date: Mon, 18 May 2015 13:16:35 +0000
Subject: RE: [Minutus] Japanese Knotweed
Roger,

I do not understand the incompleteness of your email about me this morning, subject Knotweed. If it is/was going to be in any way as harsh and hurtful as yours was to my first response to your Knotweed post yesterday, I can well do without the scorpion's sting.

You are most fortunate, and I am grateful to know, you may be in possession of far greater health, and have far more knowledge than I, of many things. Perhaps you would be kind enough to consider the intent and way within which you use your words

No one likes or benefits from being minimized, insulted or dismissed. Please remember there are those of us literally hanging on by a mere thread. I would like not to think you might revel in severing it.

Thank you,

Diana

[Roger B]

Diana,

Do you mean this email below? Next time I ruminate, I will just remove all reference to anyone. I thought that my first paragraph got me off the hook for any misunderstandings. I guess that I was wrong.

I have not yet spent any time looking in the wilder sections of my neighbourhood for knotweed. But I intend to. But we have had rain almost every day for weeks.

I usually like to balance anything I eat with other things for the very reasons that you mention; there is always something amiss with any food. My latest discovery, thanks to my wife and her friend Jay, is hibiscus tea. It is a powerful anti-oxidant, and I will be alternating between knotweed and hibiscus. And, of course, hibiscus is so good tasting that I will be able to get my son to drink it.

I have a big jar with a spigot that I bought for kombucha, and I will buy another one and have one big jar of knotweed tea and the other big jar of hibiscus tea, and so all three family members can enjoy the absurdly high anti-oxidant levels all day long, although my son will be enjoying the taste all day long. (:->)

I was thinking about introducing knotweed into my neighborhood, but the more I read about it, the more that my conscience got involved and I decided not to. (:->)

Sincerely,
Roger Bird, insensitive clod
________________________________

From: rogerbird2@hotmail.com
To: minutus@yahoogroups.com
Subject: RE: [Minutus] Japanese Knotweed
Date: Sun, 17 May 2015 11:08:31 -0600
Dear Diana,

I was thinking a lot last night long before I got this email, so I am responding mostly to my thoughts of last night rather than you.

ALL plants are loaded with "anti-inflammatory, anti-bacterial, anti-viral, anti-oxidant" properties. Otherwise, they would cease to exist in a very short period of time. They ALL have evolved to have those characteristics; otherwise oxygen and bacteria and viruses would have destroyed them. When we eat them, we benefit from their struggle to survive.

It is sort of pointless to say that such-and-such plant has anti-bacterial, anti-viral and anti-oxidant properties. They ALL do. Otherwise they would die. But, some plants have evolved additional survival strategies that include being poisonous and such, so I guess we just don't call them anti-bacterial, anti-viral and anti-oxidant. But, trust me, that ALL have those qualities.

All of the other goodies that you listed: "cardiovascular issues, anti-mutagenic, an immune modulator and inhibits platelet aggregation" are either natural results of the characteristics above that are the natural result of evolution, or else gifts from God. I prefer the later explanation. I don't see how plant evolution can benefit immune modulation in human beings. Any ideas?

Roger Bird
________________________________

To: minutus@yahoogroups.com
From: minutus@yahoogroups.com
Date: Sun, 17 May 2015 16:11:37 +0000
Subject: Re: [Minutus] Japanese Knotweed
Roger,

I don't know whether you've had the opportunity to eat the young, hollow shoots that come up in the spring. They greatly resemble asparagus shoots, but have a bit of a red hue on the tips & its fluid. I remember it being considered high in oxalic acid, so those with kidney issues might want to be careful about eating this one. Here's a recipe from Green Deane where it's used in a bread recipe:

Japanese Knotweed: Dreadable Edible | Eat The Weeds and other things, too


Japanese Knotweed: Dreadable Edible | Eat The Weeds an...
Japanese Knotweed in Fall Flower Japanese Knotweed gets no respect. Nearly everywhere it grows it’s listed as a prolific, noxious, invasive, dangerous bad-for-the...
View on www.eattheweeds.com
Preview by Yahoo

I've eaten them after lightly boiling or steaming, and have even made a very tasty, tart jam out of the early shoots. Have used the leaves & roots medicinally. If I remember correctly, it's very useful for Lyme Dz, cardiovascular issues, is anti-mutagenic, anti-inflammatory, anti-bacterial, anti-viral, anti-oxidant, an immune modulator and inhibits platelet aggregation.

It is also one of the most invasive plants around, so if one wants to start some, you might want to make darned sure it's planted in a fortress-like container or you may live to regret it. The roots go deep and travel far!

Diana

[Vicki Satta]

Wow Lynn! I know you are a plant guru. But would you ever use the remedy for a patient and what would you consider using it for? Do you have any thoughts about the symptoms a patient might have for you to decide to use it?

I am with Roger on this one... I want to eat it and hope to find some seeds to grow it on my balcony! Of course I want to ferment it and use it for pates and wild pesto after hearing Dina Falconi and others speak to a recent FOOD AS MEDICINE conference. BTW, look at her book http://www.botanicalartspress.com/ and see what she does with the HARVEST CHART. She's smart and her concept will really help foragers, chefs and anyone who needs to be organized about when to harvest the WEEDS in their areas for cooking or medicine. She is also a chapter leader for Weston A. Price in upstate NY. I think you'll love this book.

Cheers!
Vicki

[Lynn Cremona]

Hi Vicki,

I am passionate about both homeopathy and plants, but a guru I am not !

I do my best to find out Proving and or Clinical information on a any remedy before using.

I have been successful on hand weeding all the knotweed on the land I am a steward of as it is not native and extremely invasive to where I live.
I am glad to have remedies and medicinal plants that come from regions where they are native to, even if they are invasive in my area.

Best,
Lynn
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[Vicki Satta]

I love your site. You appear to be a guru to me.
But how do you do that if there is no proving? Just study the plant and the "materia medica" type references from the plant people who have done research? Is there a materia medica for people who work with the plants for healing?
I read about how invasive it is! If you run into any seeds, please harvest and let me know. I'd be happy to pay for the work. Are there different species, or a knotweed plant would be a japanese knotweed plant? And I wonder why they named it Japanese knotwood. Maybe there are various species.
Roger says this is a go get it plant. We could put the wine industry and BIG PHARMA out of business with this one. LOL... wouldn't want to put the wine industry out of business, would we?

Thanks Lynn,
Vicki

[Heidi]

I would be careful planting this plant in not yet 'infested' areas due to its reported invasiveness.... I might plant it indoors to avoid seeding outdoors and causing havoc in a not yet invaded environment.

Meanwhile, I'm continuing to use powders.

Heidi

[Rebekah Azzarelli]

Please do not intentionally plant this where it is not a native plant. Even on the porch.

You can order the tincture easily and at least where I live it is all over the place and can be harvested for food. Please search for safe foraging areas and don't cultivate it. No need to wreck another habitat. While it has promise as medicine and is nutritious we have to be considerate of the ecosystems where we live.
From http://nyis.info/index.php?action=invasive_detail&id=43

IMPACTS

Japanese knotweed spreads rapidly, forming dense thickets that crowd and shade out native vegetation. This reduces species diversity, alters natural ecosystems, and negatively impacts wildlife habitat. The ground under knotweed thickets tends to have very little other growth. This bare soil is very susceptible to erosion, posing a particular threat to riparian areas. Once established, populations of Japanese knotweed are extremely persistent and hard to eradicate.
-Rebekah

[Irene de Villiers]

aka Fallopia japonica.

The one that grows next to my back door is Polygonum sachalinense (Giant knotweed), aka Fallopia sachalinensis which looks similar but grows higher than roof level.
From a distance it looks like bamboo with the wrong leaves on it:-) But it has no strength compared to bamboo and the stems snap easily. It dies back in winter and shoots up in spring. (It's a crummy frigid climate here and this is the only thing that will grow without a green thumb in sight and with zero care.)
Pacific Northwest generally has it as invasive.
Giant knotweed only has three states against it, also in NW

Three different knotweeds hybridize easily, the third is Bohemian knotweed.
They may be medicinally/nutritionally similar.

Giant knotweed leaves are fine to eat, but not like rhubarb stems in taste, IMO.
My other home grown vegetable with equally impressive nutrients/medicinal-value, is dandelion.

...Irene
--
Irene de Villiers, B.Sc AASCA MCSSA D.I.Hom/D.Vet.Hom.
P.O. Box 4703 Spokane WA 99220.
www.Furryboots.info
(Info on Feline health, genetics, nutrition & homeopathy)
"Man who say it cannot be done should not interrupt one doing it."