Picture I don't know if this is a large shrub or a small tree. The leaves are about a foot long and soft to the touch.
I had a neighbor in Washington, DC, who grew this as a foliage plant in front of his townhouse. He would cut it right down to about 1 foot from the ground every year. This seemed to encourage it to send up vigorous shoots of, I mean, humongous leaves. It was kind of bizarre and exotic looking, like some mutant weed from a science fiction story. You wouldn't have guessed it really wanted to be a tree.
It definitely looks alien. Maybe the invasive bittersweet and mile a minute vines will kill it for me. Thanks for the ID.
Doubt you can rely on one invasive weed to kill another invasive weed . . . if it does, it means it'll likely be even worse in the long run
