Smithsonian Institution, Smithsonian Magazine The myth of kudzu has indeed swallowed the South, but the actual vine’s grip is far more tenuous. Privacy Statement When you attempt to hand-pull or dig out th… It has large leaves, long racemes with late-blooming reddish purple flowers, and flat, hairy seed pods. Kudzu originally was introduced into the U.S. from Asia in the late 1800s for erosion control and as a livestock forage. It was first introduced to the United States during the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition in 1876 where it was touted as a great ornamental plant for its sweet-smelling blooms and sturdy vines. Keep up-to-date on: © 2020 Smithsonian Magazine. Now there’s a cottage industry of kudzu-branded literary reviews and literary festivals, memoirs, cartoon strips and events. Kudzu is an ongoing natural disaster that defies containment. In addition, Kudzu’s large dark green leaves make a picturesque covereing for rough roadbanks and hillsides along Mississippi’s pa… Though fascinated by the grape-scented flowers and the purple honey produced by visiting bees, I trembled at the monstrous green forms climbing telephone poles and trees on the edges of our roads and towns. It was planted with the idea that it could be a solution for soil erosion, but its aggressive spread has proven to be a growing problem rather than an ecological solution, and it's considered an invasive species in the South. “I thought the whole world would someday be covered by it, that it would grow as fast as Jack’s beanstalk, and that every person on earth would have to live forever knee-deep in its leaves,” Morris wrote in Good Old Boy: A Delta Boyhood. Origin and Distribution A native of Asia, kudzu was introduced into the United States at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition in 1876. The more I investigate, the more I recognize that kudzu’s place in the popular imagination reveals as much about the power of American mythmaking, and the distorted way we see the natural world, as it does about the vine’s threat to the countryside. l… Citation: Miller, James H.; Edwards, Boyd. So where did the more fantastic claims of kudzu’s spread come from? The widely cited nine-million-acre number appears to have been plucked from a small garden club publication, not exactly the kind of source you expect a federal agency or academic journal to rely on. (Pueraria lobata, or P. thunbergiana), twining perennial vine that is a member of a genus belonging to the family Leguminosae. You will … The vines can grow up and over almost any structure and literally covers objects with its fast-growing vegetation. Native Range: Kudzu is found throughout Asia, including China, Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam. As you walk closer to the vines you will locate intertwined clusters of them. Kudzu can be controlled with glyphosate but it may take several years of … In the 1930s and 40s, with the country in the throes of the Great Depression and aftermath of the Dust Bowl, kudzu … Kudzu was introduced into gardens in the early 1900s and was later used for forage. And how can we stop it?. All 3 leaves will be … As with most aggressive exotic species, eradication requires persistence in monitoring and thoroughness in treating patches during a multi-year program. The kudzu is a fast-growing, woody, somewhat hairy vine that may grow to a length of 18 m (60 feet) in one season. An oriental legume, whose runners grow from 20 to 50 feet in a single season, has been used in Mississippi since 1936 to prevent erosion. Give a Gift. A recent study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reports that while vulnerable species are primarily in the Southeast, most lands protected as federal and state parks are in the West. And that, perhaps, is the real danger of kudzu. Why is it invasive? A Faster Way to Get Rid of Kudzu . Yet the popular myth won a modicum of scientific respectability. Kudzu is a perennial vine hailing from the pea family. Kudzu was cultivated by civilians who were paid $8 per hour to plant the vine on the top … Southern Journal of Applied Forestry. In the decades that followed, the plant's coverage expanded dramatically, consuming fields and forests throughout the region, while becoming a cultural touchstone for generations of southerners. Uses for Kudzu Plants. Introduced from Asia in the late 19th century as a garden novelty, but not widely planted until the 1930s, kudzu is now America’s most infamous weed. 7: 165-169. Invasive roses had covered more than three times as much forestland as kudzu. Provides kudzu resources from sources with an interest in the prevention, control, or eradication of invasive species. Kudzu bugs are a type of stink bug. Farmers still couldn’t find a way to make money from the crop. Cultivated in Japan for centuries, kudzu first appeared in the United States in 1876 at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition's Japanese Pavilion. In addition, Kudzu’s large dark green leaves make a picturesque covereing for rough roadbanks and hillsides along Mississippi’s paved highways. Terms of Use It was introduced to southerners at the New Orleans (Louisiana) Exposition in 1884-86. More important, it obscures the beauty of the South’s original landscape, reducing its rich diversity to a simplistic metaphor. Read the instructions that come with your herbicide. Considering all the damage Kudzu plants do, it still has many fans. Charles and Lillie Pleas were like many homesteaders when they dropped kudzu around their house in Chipley, Fla., in the early 1900s, seeking low … Kudzu is most prolific in areas where winters are mild (40 to 60 degrees Fahrenheit (4-16 °C)), summer temperatures rise above 80 degrees Fahrenheit (27 °C), the growing season is long, and annual precipitation is > 40 inches (1,000 mm) [51,66]. Kudzu (Pueraria lobata) is an invasive vine that was introduced to the U.S. from Japan and distributed throughout the South for erosion control. It cannot be over emphasized that total eradication of kudzu is necessary to prevent re-growth. Kudzu leaf and flower In the often-cited poem “Kudzu,” Georgia novelist James Dickey teases Southerners with their own tall tales, invoking an outrageous kudzu-smothered world where families close the windows at night to keep the invader out, where the writhing vines and their snakes are indistinguishable. While you can find kudzu vine almost anywhere in the South by taking a drive on a country road, kudzu root is probably most popular by way of a supplement or as kudzu root tea that can be found at most health fo… Kudzu (Pueraria lobata; formerly P. thunbergiana) is a prolific vine that was introduced to Georgia and other southern states during the latter half of the nineteenth century. What helps Kudzu to thrive is its root system that forms very deep in the soil. Accessed 2006 Aug 21. http://www.invasive.org/eastern/midatlantic. It’s related to five species in the genus Pueraria (P. montana, P. lobata, P. edulis, P. phaseoloides and P. thomsoni). Swearingen J, Reshetiloff K, Slattery B, Zwicker S. 2002. Perhaps it was while I watched horses and cows mowing fields of kudzu down to brown stubs. Kudzu. Imported from Japan in the 19th century, promoted by the Soil Conservation Service to stem soil erosion, kudzu morphed in a few decades from an … Kudzu came from Japan.kudzu was brought over from Japan to prevent erosion during WWII. Kudzu cares nothing about blue or red states, and it is now found coast to coast and border to border. Kudzu monocultures typically contain thousands of individual plants per acre . Habitat: Kudzu is commonly found in disturbed areas such as roadsides, and prefers sandy areas with mild winters and hot summers. It veils more serious threats to the countryside, like suburban sprawl, or more destructive invasive plants such as the dense and aggressive cogon grass and the shrubby privet. In 1998, Congress officially listed kudzu under the Federal Noxious Weed Act. It quickly got out of control and became the most infamous type of rampantly uncontrollable, smothering vegetation. Those roadside plantings—isolated from grazing, impractical to manage, their shoots shimmying up the trunks of second-growth trees—looked like monsters. Revegetation of sites following treatment is an important last step to ensure that any residual kudzu does not reestablish. More than 70 million kudzu seedlings were grown in nurseries by the newly created Soil Conservation Service. Its introduction has produced devastating environmental consequences. Southern Journal of Applied Forestry. The vine densely climbs over other plants and trees and grows so rapidly that it smothers and kills them by heavily blocking sunlight. K Britton/USDA FS (right) Still, along Southern roads, the blankets of untouched kudzu create famous spectacles. Each flower is on a separate petiole that connects to the stem. Like most Southern children, I accepted, almost as a matter of faith, that kudzu grew a mile a minute and that its spread was unstoppable. Plant Control:Mature patches of Kudzu can be difficult to contain let alone control. “The Vine that ate the South” is no longer just a southern problem either. I’d walk an extra mile to avoid patches of it and the writhing knots of snakes that everyone said were breeding within. Apply a second dose of herbicide in late summer. The official hype has also led to various other questionable claims—that kudzu could be a valuable source of biofuel and that it has contributed substantially to ozone pollution. Considering all the damage Kudzu plants do, it still has many fans. In the 1930s and 40s, with the country in the throes of the Great Depression and aftermath of the Dust Bowl, kudzu … Control can be accomplished by persistent applications of effecti We use cookies to enhance your experience on our website.By continuing to use our website, you are agreeing to our use of cookies. In the latest careful sampling, the U.S. Forest Service reports that kudzu occupies, to some degree, about 227,000 acres of forestland, an area about the size of a small county and about one-sixth the size of Atlanta. But scientists reassessing kudzu’s spread have found that it’s nothing like that. Bill Finch is the lead horticulture and science advisor to the Mobile Botanical Gardens in Alabama. California Do Not Sell My Info Our species profiles include selected highly relevant resources for the species (organized by source), and access to all species related resources included on our site. But it did not become the plant that’s eating America all by itself. Bored children traveling rural highways insist their parents wake them when they near the green kudzu monsters stalking the roadside. of Georgia (left) These roots are hard to dig out completely. Posted Date: January 1, 2000 Citation: Miller, James H.; Edwards, Boyd. But they have a unique look that isn’t hard to identify. I believed, as many still do, that kudzu had eaten much of the South and would soon sink its teeth into the rest of the nation. But, in fact, it rarely penetrates deeply into a forest; it climbs well only in sunny areas on the forest edge and suffers in shade. Tennessee, Alabama and northern Georgia (often considered centers of the kudzu invasion) and the Florida Panhandle are among the areas that the authors argue should be prioritized. All land owners in an infestation area must coopera… There is a spot of yellow on each stem of flowers. Kudzu is a perennial vine hailing from the pea family. The plant was widely marketed as an ornamental plant that would provide shade for porches as well as a high protein content for livestock fodder and as a cover for soil erosion in the 20th century. Thirty years younger He was, as cultural geographer Derek Alderman suggests, an evangelist. The Civilian Conservation Corps and southern farmers planted kudzu to reduce soil erosion. Repeated applications are usually required to kill every root crown. Cookie Policy But it did not become the plant that’s eating America all by itself. Only vines more than a yard above the ground in full sun will flower in late summer, and few fruiting pods develop viable seeds. By Sandra Avant July 13, 2016 . But somehow they hopped a ride across an ocean and ended up in Georgia in 2009. www.forestryimages.org. There were kudzu queens and regionwide kudzu planting contests. What Are Kudzu Bugs and Where the Heck Did They Come From. Kudzu bugs are a recent addition to the U.S. list of invasive species. Look for trifoliate leaves, or formations with 3 leaflets attached at each node. http://www.invasive.org/eastern/midatlantic. There is a spot of yellow on each stem of flowers. Get the best of Smithsonian magazine by email. All land owners in an infestation area must coopera… Kudzu is a group of climbing, coiling, and trailing perennial vines native to much of East Asia, Southeast Asia, and some Pacific islands, but invasive in many parts of the world, primarily North America. Introduced from Asia in the late 19th century as a garden novelty, but not widely planted until the 1930s, kudzu is now America’s most infamous weed. Julia Tyler (1820-1889) was an American first lady (1844-1845) and the second wife of John Tyler, the 10th president of the United States. As a botanist and horticulturist, I couldn’t help but wonder why people thought kudzu was a unique threat when so many other vines grow just as fast in the warm, wet climate of the South. Our species profiles include selected highly relevant resources for the species (organized by source), and access to all species related resources included on our site. By 2010 the first signs of kudzu bugs were in Alabama. It grows quickly over other small plants, trees, and on to structures like telephone poles. By 1900 kudzu was available through mail order and sold mainly as an inexpensive livestock forage. For the generations of writers who followed, many no longer intimately connected to the land, kudzu served as a shorthand for describing the Southern landscape and experience, a ready way of identifying the place, the writer, the effort as genuinely Southern. Nothing seems to stop it. Native Range: Kudzu is found throughout Asia, including China, Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam. Revegetation of sites following treatment is an important last step to ensure that any residual kudzu does not reestablish. Two popular how-to books, one a kudzu craft book and the other a “culinary and healing guide,” are, strangely, among the most frequently quoted sources on the extent of kudzu’s spread, even in scholarly accounts. For many, the vivid depictions of kudzu had simply become the defining imagery of the landscape, just as palms might represent Florida or cactus Arizona. They were first sighted in Georgia in 2009 and are suspected to originate from Asia. It has large leaves, long racemes with late-blooming reddish purple flowers, and flat, hairy seed pods. Countries were invited to build exhibits to celebrate the 100th birthday of the U.S. Kudzu bugs are a recent addition to the U.S. list of invasive species. By 1945, only a little more than a million acres had been planted, and much of it was quickly grazed out or plowed under after federal payments stopped. Spray the herbicide onto kudzu in spring when it is most vulnerable after winter dormancy. It was conspicuous even at 65 miles per hour, reducing complex and indecipherable landscape details to one seemingly coherent mass. Kudzu monocultures typically contain thousands of individual plants per acre . Distribution U.S. But the myth of kudzu had been firmly rooted. In the end, kudzu may prove to be among the least appropriate symbols of the Southern landscape and the planet’s future. Kudzu has appeared larger than life because it’s most aggressive when planted along road cuts and railroad embankments—habitats that became front and center in the age of the automobile. These bugs got busy right away laying eggs and migrating out farther across the south. Kudzu is spreading in the South and control measures are required on large acreages. It is also native to the south Pacific region, including Australia, Fiji, New Caledonia, Solomon Islands, Tonga, and Vanuatu. Kudzu Flower Photo: The vine produces a long stem of beautiful purple to redish-purple flowers. Our obsession with the vine hides the South. Kudzu originally was introduced into the U.S. from Asia in the late 1800s for erosion control and as a livestock forage. or Some of these weed treatments require that you dilute the chemicals with water. Origin and Distribution A native of Asia, kudzu was introduced into the United States at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition in 1876. Plant Invaders of Mid-Atlantic Natural Areas. Present: AL, AR, DE, FL, GA, HI, IA, IL, IN, KS, KY, LA, MA, MO, MD, MS, NC, NE, NJ, NY, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, TN, TX, VA, WA, WV For a CAPS/CERIS/USDA map of past/presen… A writer for Deep South Magazine recently gushed that kudzu is “the ultimate icon for the South...an amazing metaphor for just about every issue you can imagine within Southern Studies.” One blogger, surveying the kudzu-littered literature of the modern South, dryly commented that all you have to do to become a Southern novelist is “throw in a few references to sweet tea and kudzu.”. As you walk closer to the vines you will locate intertwined clusters of them. The Japanese kudzu bug, first found in a garden near Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport six years ago, apparently hitched a plane ride and is now infesting vines throughout the South, sucking the plants’ vital juices. Even existing stands of kudzu now exude the odor of their own demise, an acrid sweetness reminiscent of grape bubble gum and stink bug. Other names: Kudzu, Pueraria montana Where did it come from? Yep, you may smell them before you see them. Kudzu is a fast-growing vine native to the subtropical regions of China and Japan, as well as some other Pacific islands.1, 2 The plant consists of leaves (containing 3 broad oval leaflets), purple flowers, and curling tendril spikes.3, 4 Because the stem grows up to 20 m in length and due to its extensive root system, kudzu has been used to control soil erosion. Today, it frequently appears on popular top-ten lists of invasive species. It appeared not to stop because there were no grazers to eat it back. Currently they have spread through several southeastern states, including North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia. Why is it invasive? While you can find kudzu vine almost anywhere in the South by taking a drive on a country road, kudzu root is probably most popular by way of a supplement or as kudzu root tea that can be found at most health fo… |. Uses for Kudzu Plants. Unfortunately, it quickly became a problem because of its rapid growth. Charles and Lillie Pleas were like many homesteaders when they dropped kudzu around their house in Chipley, Fla., in the early 1900s, … By the early 1940s, Cope had started the Kudzu Club of America, with a membership of 20,000 and a goal of planting eight million acres across the South. You will … Advertising Notice In news media and scientific accounts and on some government websites, kudzu is typically said to cover seven million to nine million acres across the United States. It grows quickly over other small plants, trees, and on to structures like telephone poles. According to a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) study, the use of combined management programs can control kudzu more quickly than individual methods in use today.. An invasive weed, kudzu was introduced to the United States in the late 1800s. By 1900 kudzu was available through mail order and sold mainly as an inexpensive livestock forage. Cope wasn’t just an advocate. As a young naturalist growing up in the Deep South, I feared kudzu. Each flower is on a separate petiole that connects to the stem. Kudzu: Where did it come from? Kudzu: Where did it come from? What helps Kudzu to thrive is its root system that forms very deep in the soil. Kudzu, known popularly as the "vine that ate the South," has become one of the most recognizable symbols of the American Southeast. In Asia kudzu serves as one of the favorite hosts for many species of insects including the nefarious kudzu bug and, until recently, careful inspections and lady luck barred entry of this insect to North America. To overcome the lingering suspicions of farmers, the service offered as much as $8 per acre to anyone willing to plant the vine. The Japanese government constructed a beautiful garden filled with plants from their country. It cannot be over emphasized that total eradication of kudzu is necessary to prevent re-growth. Introduced in the late nineteenth century from Asia, it now covers more than a quarter million acres in Alabama and more than seven million acres in other southeastern states, swallowing up abandoned buildings and farms. It can also be found in forests or meadows growing across the ground or attached to trees (pictured above). Kudzu was introduced into gardens in the early 1900s and was later used for forage. Kudzu can be controlled with glyphosate but it may take several years of … Before you start swatting, check out our guide to kudzu bugs and the best practices for controlling them. Railroad and highway developers, desperate for something to cover the steep and unstable gashes they were carving into the land, planted the seedlings far and wide. But its mythic rise and fall should alert us to the careless secondhand way we sometimes view the living world, and how much more we might see if we just looked a little deeper. Kudzu is a fast-growing vine native to the subtropical regions of China and Japan, as well as some other Pacific islands.1, 2 The plant consists of leaves (containing 3 broad oval leaflets), purple flowers, and curling tendril spikes.3, 4 Because the stem grows up to 20 m in length and due to its extensive root system, kudzu has been used to control soil erosion. Other names: Kudzu, Pueraria montana Where did it come from? “If you based it on what you saw on the road, you’d say, dang, this is everywhere,” said Nancy Loewenstein, an invasive plants specialist with Auburn University. According to research published in 2010 (Hickman et al. Kudzu might have forever remained an obscure front porch ornament had it not been given a boost by one of the most aggressive marketing campaigns in U.S. history. This has earned it the nickname "the vine that ate the South". Provides kudzu resources from sources with an interest in the prevention, control, or eradication of invasive species. Here are a few kudzu bug characteristics: Kudzu is an invasive plant species in the United States. … This process is ongoing, so repeat yearly until the kudzu plant dies. It’s related to five species in the genus Pueraria (P. montana, P. lobata, P. edulis, P. phaseoloides and P. thomsoni). These roots are hard to dig out completely. 7: 165-169. Kudzu sat dormant for several years as a game design document that I told myself I’d someday get to (an early version of Max can be found in the lower-left corner of … Kudzu - or kuzu (クズ) - is native to Japan and southeast China. By the early 1950s, the Soil Conservation Service was quietly back-pedaling on its big kudzu push. Repeated applications are usually required to kill every root crown. Kudzu ( Pueraria lobata) is an invasive vine that was introduced to the U.S. from Japan and distributed throughout the South for erosion control. They were first sighted in Georgia in 2009 and are suspected to originate from Asia. The kudzu is a fast-growing, woody, somewhat hairy vine that may grow to a length of 18 m (60 feet) in one season. The Kudzu vine can grow up to 12 feet in a day and is not slowed down by poor conditions. (Pueraria lobata, or P. thunbergiana), twining perennial vine that is a member of a genus belonging to the family Leguminosae. Wilson, the American biologist and naturalist at Harvard, says the central Gulf Coast states “harbor the most diversity of any part of eastern North America, and probably any part of North America.” Yet when it comes to environmental and conservation funding, the South remains a poor stepchild. Posted Date: January 1, 2000 In the dictionary next to the definition of "invasive species," they could show a photo of kudzu. The U.S. government did its best to spread kudzu throughout the South. Planet ’ s as if many have come to view the southeast as little more than 70 million kudzu were... Kudzu-Branded literary reviews and literary where did kudzu come from, memoirs, cartoon strips and events over almost structure. Vine hailing from the Japanese name for the Alabama Press-Register Congress declared war on where did kudzu come from... Locate intertwined clusters of them the beauty of the U.S had invaded 3.2... 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