You will … The Japanese government constructed a beautiful garden filled with plants from their country. Today, it frequently appears on popular top-ten lists of invasive species. In addition, Kudzu’s large dark green leaves make a picturesque covereing for rough roadbanks and hillsides along Mississippi’s pa… Kudzu - or kuzu (クズ) - is native to Japan and southeast China. Spray the herbicide onto kudzu in spring when it is most vulnerable after winter dormancy. Charles and Lillie Pleas were like many homesteaders when they dropped kudzu around their house in Chipley, Fla., in the early 1900s, … 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. 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 … As trees grew in the cleared lands near roadsides, kudzu rose with them. Origin and Distribution A native of Asia, kudzu was introduced into the United States at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition in 1876. More than 70 million kudzu seedlings were grown in nurseries by the newly created Soil Conservation Service. “The Vine that ate the South” is no longer just a southern problem either. Other names: Kudzu, Pueraria montana Where did it come from? K Britton/USDA FS (right) http://www.invasive.org/eastern/midatlantic. KUDZU ALONG THE HIGHWAY... 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. Only vines more than a yard above the ground in full sun will flower in late summer, and few fruiting pods develop viable seeds. Kudzu can be controlled with glyphosate but it may take several years of … It was conspicuous even at 65 miles per hour, reducing complex and indecipherable landscape details to one seemingly coherent mass. Kudzu originally was introduced into the U.S. from Asia in the late 1800s for erosion control and as a livestock forage. In the end, kudzu may prove to be among the least appropriate symbols of the Southern landscape and the planet’s future. It grows quickly over other small plants, trees, and on to structures like telephone poles. This has earned it the nickname "the vine that ate the South". Swearingen J, Reshetiloff K, Slattery B, Zwicker S. 2002. There is a spot of yellow on each stem of flowers. Habitat: Kudzu is commonly found in disturbed areas such as roadsides, and prefers sandy areas with mild winters and hot summers. It cannot be over emphasized that total eradication of kudzu is necessary to prevent re-growth. Plant Control:Mature patches of Kudzu can be difficult to contain let alone control. Other names: Kudzu, Pueraria montana Where did it come from? California Do Not Sell My Info 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. 1983. Origin and Distribution A native of Asia, kudzu was introduced into the United States at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition in 1876. 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… Kudzu Flower Photo: The vine produces a long stem of beautiful purple to redish-purple flowers. “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. 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. Its introduction has produced devastating environmental consequences. 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. “The Vine that ate the South” is no longer just a southern problem either. Yet the popular myth won a modicum of scientific respectability. Keep up-to-date on: © 2020 Smithsonian Magazine. The plant was first brought to North America in 1876 to landscape a garden at the United States Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Smithsonian Institution, Smithsonian Magazine But somehow they hopped a ride across an ocean and ended up in Georgia in 2009. 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. When you attempt to hand-pull or dig out th… (Pueraria lobata, or P. thunbergiana), twining perennial vine that is a member of a genus belonging to the family Leguminosae. Advertising Notice But they have a unique look that isn’t hard to identify. Cut the Vines. Native Range: Kudzu is found throughout Asia, including China, Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam. They have alternate and compound leaves, with three wide leaflets with hairy margins. l… 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.”. Look for trifoliate leaves, or formations with 3 leaflets attached at each node. Kudzu Origin Kudzu was introduced from Japan to the United States at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition in 1876 as an ornamental and a forage crop plant. Kudzu was introduced into gardens in the early 1900s and was later used for forage. Kudzu is spreading in the South and control measures are required on large acreages. As with most aggressive exotic species, eradication requires persistence in monitoring and thoroughness in treating patches during a multi-year program. All land owners in an infestation area must coopera… That’s about one-tenth of 1 percent of the South’s 200 million acres of forest. But the myth of kudzu had been firmly rooted. The vines can grow up and over almost any structure and literally covers objects with its fast-growing vegetation. The Latin scientific name for Kudzu, or the kudzu vine, is Pueraria lobata or Pueraria thunbergiana.See the related link(s) listed below for more information: Where did kudzu come from? In a 1973 article about Mississippi, Alice Walker, author of The Color Purple, wrote that “racism is like that local creeping kudzu vine that swallows whole forests and abandoned houses; if you don’t keep pulling up the roots it will grow back faster than you can destroy it.” The photographs of kudzu-smothered cars and houses that show up repeatedly in documentaries of Southern life evoke intractable poverty and defeat.