What is kudzu (pueraria lobata)? There’s a lot of misinformation about this plant. So, where does it really come from, and what good and bad impacts has it had on the part of the United States where it grows the most – that is, the southeastern U.S.?
Kudzu is a vine with broad leaves that grows fast and smothers all the other plants in its path, including trees. If you travel throughout the southeast, you will often see patches of this plant, seeing real-life examples of its smothering characteristics, leaving nothing but dead grasses, weeds, shrubs, and trees in its wake. If you ask people where it comes from, they will often tell you that the plant originated in the rain-forest climate in sub-Saharan Africa, that it was originally brought here as either a foliage crop for farm animals, or to put on earthen dams to help prevent soil erosion. It turns out that the information you’ll receive from different people you ask will probably be partially right and partially wrong. This is because there are so many stories out there about where the plant came from that they can’t all be true.
It seems the plant is native to East Asia, not Africa like many people think, being originally imported from Japan to be used as a foliage crop for farm animals, including pigs, goats, and cattle, and that it was later used as a way to control soil erosion, being promoted by the Soil Conservation Service, and not by the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers, in their creation of man-made lakes like many people think. In other words, an understanding of this plant, kudzu, being used as a foliage crop and to prevent soil erosion is right, although an understanding of the origin of the species, as well as the purpose for which it was used to prevent soil erosion, and which group supported it, will possibly be wrong. Needless to say, the uses of this species as a foliage crop, and to prevent soil erosion, are two of the positive impacts that we have from the use of Kudzu.
So, what are the negative impacts of this species? One has already been mentioned – it is a fast growing plant that smothers everything in its tracks, eventually killing those things in smothers, which could include whole trees. The other negative aspect of this plant is the fact that it is a very fast growing plant, possibly growing as fast as 2 meters per week. This means that if it is not controlled, it can destroy whole farm fields, hide roads, cover buildings, hide road signs (which can be dangerous), among other things it can smother. Because it is such a fast growing plant, it is difficult to control and almost impossible to eradicate (unless you had a million or more volunteers working together in some kind of coordinated effort).
In other words, in order to avoid the negative impacts of this plant, it needs to be kept under close scrutiny, and regularly destroyed, particularly in places where it is discovered to exist. Perhaps one way we can regularly destroy it is by getting farmers to turn their livestock loose in fields that have been overrun with kudzu. This would do much to minimize the negative impacts of this plant, helping to save crops, and not kill trees and shrubs.
