I garden for a living, besides writing. My last blog referred to bamboo growing in a rock garden outside my back door. But my urban gardening mentor has informed me this plant is not bamboo. 

It's Japanese knotweed. Many consider knotweed an invasive species, but one gardener calls it a "beautiful, carefree shrub" (maybe meaning "impossible to get rid of").
  
Knotweed, also known as Polygonum, is not even closely related to bamboo, though it looks like it, spreads like it and grows so rapidly I notice changes, hour by hour. Bamboo is a grass and knotweed belongs to the buckwheat family. 


Image: Japanese knotweed (or Fallopia japonica of the Polygonaceae family) by Dankogreen, via Flickr.com

The Polygonum behind my place is still sprouting.

Have you ever tried to eradicate (or learned to like) knotweed? Do tell.