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Japanese Honewort (Cryptotaenia japonica )

Also known as mitsuba, Japanese wild parsley.

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a plant with sets of three purplish-bronze leaflets with serrated margins, purple-brown stems, and tiny pale pink flowers
Photo © Zihao Wang, CC BY 4.0.

Range - Expand

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Introduced

This map is based on our research. We have checked its accuracy to Level 4 ecoregions. Although this plant occurs somewhere in each of these regions, it may only occur in a small part of some or all of them.

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Honewort (Cryptotaenia canadensis)
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Control

This plant is difficult to control due to its prolific seeding, and ability to form a short-term seed bank. However, it does not tend to travel very far by seeding, and once it is removed fully from a site for a period of about 4 years, it rarely will recolonize.

Removal of all flowering plants before they set seed is critical. However, plants can also reproduce vegetatively underground and this process typically begins before seed is produced, so it is preferable to remove plants earlier in spring, typically by April at the latest.

Removal of first-year plants can be carried out later in the growing season, as these plants typically neither flower nor reproduce vegetatively. Follow-up in autumn to look for plants that emerged from cloned underground buds can be helpful.

Uses

A red-leafed cultivar is occasionally planted in landscaping. The green-leafed plants are sometimes cultivated as a food plant.

This species is closely related to honewort (Cryptotaenia canadensis), which is native to eastern North America.

Photo gallery

a plant with sets of three purplish-bronze leaflets with serrated margins, purple-brown stems, and tiny pale pink flowers
Photo © Zihao Wang, CC BY 4.0.