Hi all. As i've said before I'm brand new to gardening so I hope this is an obvious question and easily answered. I have inherited a fairly damp garden and a plant that I was told was wild rhubarb, though looking on the net I would say not, is sprouting up everywhere.

Its description follows: very rapidly growing, starts with red fairly think single shoot, growing to 1 inch wide single stem with thin broad leafed branches forming wide leafy canopy. Stems are hollow and are green with red flecks. Live plants are easily snapped making it impossible to pull the roots up via the stalk. Dead plant forms brittle fragile hollow tubes to about 2m tall.

My questions as I say are what is it? has it any use - edible? How do I make it die - bearing in mind its everywhere making it nearly impossible to dig up.

Any thoughts?