Pots of opportunities for gardeners' weed from hell

Japanese knotweed, the alien species once labelled "the plant from hell" for its ability to invade urban Britain and grow through concrete, may have a good side after all. A conservation group is turning the evil weed into paper.

The idea that this botanical hooligan could make something of itself came from something that Sheffield Wildlife Trusts's Dave Clark read in Richard Mabey's Flora Britannica, pointing out the plant could produce "moderate quality, hand-made paper".

Thinking this might be a way to help control the invader, and make potentially commercial use of it, Mr Clark and artist Lisa Meaney started experimenting. First they tried to produce paper for photocopiers and faxes, but that involved adding too many chemicals, making the process too costly and far from eco-friendly. Now they have hit upon the right way to exploit the plant that costs local authorities many millions of pounds to eradicate: little grow-pots for other, gentler plants.

They found that fallopia japonica can be turned into pulp from which the pots and hanging basket liners can be made. Together with Sheffield's Heeley City Farm and a special needs group who work there, they are soon to go into production. Six-foot long shoots were collected from urban sites earlier this season. These were cut up, and are now having a lengthy soak, prior to pulp production.

Mr Clark said: "One of the best ways to control and, in time, eradicate Japanese knotweed is to keep on cutting it, which eventually weakens the rhizome [root]. If you can then do something with it, and make some money for community and conservation projects, so much the better."

A career as a cash crop is, however, not possible, since cultivating knotweed is illegal. But, as Richard Mabey points out, paper is not the only use to which it can be put. Cardiff City Farm has used it as cattle fodder, the Japanese regard it as a vegetable, and, in parts of culinary-inventive Wales, where seaweed is made into lardy cake, young shoots and leaves are cooked like spinach. Stand by, then, for its debut in a fancy London restaurant. If the patrons don't like the taste, the plant can always be turned into menus.