Plant ID Please

Hi All,
Dose anybody know what this plant is please?

 

Hopefully its not Himalayan Balsam?

 

Looks like Himalayan Balsam to me, especially given the amount of it in the background.

 

Welcome to the forums Andy -Bee.
Agree...Impatiens glandulifera...beautiful yes, BUT a terrible, alien invasive plant.
It is ruining the British countryside.
Swamping out our native wild flowers.
The seeds are explosive and it is spreading.

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=Impatiens glandulifera&rls=com.microsoft:en-US&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=EfWCU--jAqXb0QXw7IDYCA&ved=0CAgQ_AUoAQ&biw=1536&bih=703

 

DO NOT LET IT SET SEED ...

Other than that I think you'll be OK

 

Agree, enjoy the first flush of flowers but then I'm afraid you'd be best ripping it up before it sets seed.

On the plus side, bees love it

 

Thankyou for your replies,
The plant is covering a plot of land I was looking at buying and I thought that it could be the dreaded Knotweed.
So spraying with Glyphosate before it seeds will kill it?

 

Not Knotweed thank goodness

Spraying and hoeing, there will be thousands of seeds ready to come up

You can eat the seed pods btw

 

Yes, easy enough to fill. Its an Annual, so even cutting it down will do. Seed viablililty is not all that long I think? A couple of years, maybe three, so on that basis an annual "cull" for a few years will do the trick. However, if it got there in the first place maybe it is rife in adjacent gardens / land, and thus risk of re-invasion - but in that regard its probably less of a problem that re-invasion of Horsetail, Ground Elder or Bindweed from neighbouring properties - they are harder to eradicate.

 

Do you live near a water course (river, stream, ditch etc)? If so, get rid. Otherwise, it's easy enough to manage if you're prepared to deadhead it every few days. Here's a selection called Red Wine which I grow.......................


Far better and more manageable is I.balfourii...................

 

I think the bees adore it,
Jenny

 

Very much so! Not so good if you are allergic to bee stings though..............