Hey folks, I'm Sam Evans Brown and this is Outside In, a show about the natural world and how we use it. Today we've got a double feature. In the second half of the show, we've got a new Ask Sam where we'll tackle some listener questions

about bird feeders black flies and the clouds but first it's time for another one of our

regular bits no other species can defeat them.

They're invasive.

So why don't we just freaking eat them?

Because we're hungry.

Eat the invaders. This is Eat the invaders.

This is Eat the Invaders, where we talk about fighting off invasive species

by using the somewhat questionable strategy of eating them.

This is Japanese knotweed.

It's a plant which was introduced

as so many of them are because it has beautiful flowers

and is really easy to grow. In Japan, when a volcano erupts and

buries the land in magma, knotweed is often the first plant to break through the rocks and

recolonize. It looks sort of like bamboo

with broad tear-shaped leaves and tall segmented stocks that can grow to be over

your head. But here in the US, knotweed is a problem and it is tenacious. It can grow

through foundations, tear apart pavement or stone walls, or just take over your yard.

But there's at least a little bit of good news.

In another week or two as it warms up here,

it's going to send up these little shoots.

And when it sends those up, the first foot, foot and a half is edible like asparagus.

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