In 1850, Britain received Japanese knotweed as an exotic garden ornament; its rapid growth later turned the Victorian prize into a national menace

In August 1850, a parcel arrived at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, containing a plant that would go on to reshape how Britain thinks about invasive species. The sender was Philipp Franz von Siebold, a Bavarian physician and plant collector who had spent years in Japan gathering specimens for European gardens. Japanese knotweed arrived with striking foliage, bamboo-like stems, and a growth habit that Victorian gardeners found irresistible.

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