The British Columbia Ministry of Agriculture and Lands doesn’t have much that’s good to say about kudzu, a vine that’s native to eastern Asia: “Kudzu is a very aggressive plant and can out-compete or eliminate native plant species thereby upsetting the natural diversity of plant and animal communities.”
The perennial plant can grow up to 30 metres (90 feet) in a year “smothering and shading plants and trees from light.”
Kudzu Introduced to America from Japan
According to the U.S. National Park Service, “Kudzu was introduced into the U.S. in 1876 at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition, where it was promoted as a forage crop and an ornamental plant.”
Starting in the mid 1930s farmers in the south and the U.S. government planted it to prevent soil erosion. However, by the mid-1950s its vigorous growing habit was recognized as a menace and it was removed from a list of approved cover plants.
According to the article "Controlling Kudzu with Naturally Occurring Fungus" at sciencedaily.com (July 20, 2009) “kudzu infests 20,000 to 30,000 square kilometres of land in the United States and costs around $500 million annually in lost cropland and control costs.” It consumes about 61,000 additional hectares each year.
Vigorous Growth Habits of Kudzu
The botanical name is Pueraria lobata but it has gathered a number of unflattering titles as it has relentlessly progressed across the U.S. southeastern states – “foot-a-night-vine,” “mile-a-minute-vine,” “cancer of the vegetative world,” are some of the milder, family-friendly ones.
The climbing and coiling plant loves a hot, humid climate. It doesn’t mind a bit of frost but, if the ground freezes down to its roots it doesn't do well. However, the British Columbia Ministry of Agriculture and Lands says, “It will grow in most places with soils and climate not being a factor.”
Sciencedaily.com says kudzu easily outpaces “the use of herbicide spraying and mowing, as well increasing the costs of these controls by $6 million annually.”
Kudzu Turns up in Canada
The vine has been seen in Pennsylvania and the Ohio Valley, and that is outside its normal range. In the summer of 2009, it showed up in Canada.
On September 29, 2009, the Leamington Post reported a patch of kudzu had been found growing near the southern Ontario town. “The local plant is located on private property and experts are unsure of how it got there,” wrote the newspaper. “Speculation ranges from seeds somehow making their way across the lake (Erie), to someone planting the vine, thinking it would look nice in a garden.
“Regardless, it needs to go.”
This is the first sighting in Canada, but experts fear that with global warming it won’t be the last.
Kudzu May have some Useful Qualities
At the CBC, science writer Stephen Strauss has come to the defence of the plant. In an article posted September 7, 2007, Strauss writes that kudzu could make a wonderful raw material for biofuels. He suggests it also has the ability to “leech [sic] the noxious chemicals out of contaminated soils.”
It is also “an essential component of Chinese traditional medicines; a potential control drug for an alcoholic’s cravings; [and] a plant whose starch makes pies and gravies light and delicious…”
However, the apologists for kudzu have a mammoth task ahead of them in trying to create a positive image for a plant that has such a bad reputation.
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