Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, Hinman, Kristen. Type Thing. Related Entries Science and Technology. Related Media Kudzu. Login to the CALS catalog! Track your borrowing. Rate and review titles you borrow and share your opinions on them. Get personalized recommendations. View All Services. Entries Media All. Gender — Female Male. Management is difficult, but can be accomplished by removal of the root crown a knobby mass of tissue at or just under the soil surface , repeated mowing this depletes the plant of nutrients , or herbicides.
Often, multiple methods are required to effectively manage kudzu. Biological control methods are being tested, and some including a beetle and fungal spray do show promise as potential management options. Search Site only in current section. Almeida is a large, trifoliate-leaved, semi-woody, trailing or climbing perennial vine in the Fabaceae legume or pea family.
Up close, kudzu might at first be confused with a vigorous poison ivy plant. But kudzu stems are distinctly hairy, and the vines twine rather than use hairy rootlets to climb as poison ivy does. The vines may grow up to 60 feet in a single season and as much as 1 foot during a single day in the early summer. This amount of vine growth is supported by starchy, tuberous roots that can reach a depth of 12 feet in older patches and weigh as much as to pounds. Kudzu is well-adapted to Alabama and is found throughout the state.
It will grow on a wide range of soil types, but does better on deep, loamy soils compared to very light sands or poorly drained, heavy clay soils or those with high pH. Kudzu exhibits a symbiotic relationship with nitrogen-fixing bacteria, which may help explain its successful growth on heavily eroded sites.
Vines grow outward in all directions, and roots grow down from a root crown located on the soil surface. Vines growing along the ground can root every foot or so at the nodes and form new root crowns that can become independent plants. Mature stands may contain tens of thousands of plants per acre and can create mats up to 8 feet thick. Vines climb by twining, but cannot twine around smooth objects with diameters greater than approximately 8 inches.
Trailing, prostrate vines generally die back to the root crown after the first heavy frost. Vigorous, climbing vines greater than one-quarter inch in diameter can overwinter, but the leaves will be killed by the first frost. Climbing vines can reach 10 inches and greater in diameter, putting on what appear to be annual growth rings and developing rough, dark brown bark. Kudzu blooms from July through September. The fragrant, pealike purple flowers are typically produced on plants that are climbing or draped over vegetation or other objects, as vines rarely flower when trailing on the ground.
Flowers are followed by flat, hairy seed pods; however, seed production and viability are highly variable. Seeds mature on the vines in October and November. Longevity of seeds in the soil is not known. Last accessed September 18, Approximately 15 species of kudzu Pueraria spp.
For more than 2, years, Asian cultures have found great value in kudzu. Chinese records tell of kudzu roots being dried and diced for medicinal purposes as early as During the s, kudzu was imported into Japan where the roots were ground into flour. Kudzu flour is still imported to the United States and sold in many Asian grocery and health food stores. However, all the plants were destroyed by law after the exhibition. In the late nineteenth century, kudzu seeds were imported and sold for use as an ornamental vine to shade porches and courtyards of southern homes.
It was also appreciated for the grape-like fragrance of its flowers and for its vigorous growth. By the turn of the century, kudzu was available through mail-order catalogs. By , through the efforts of C. Pleas of Chipley, Florida, kudzu was promoted as inexpensive forage for livestock.
In the s, kudzu reached the height of its prominence. The miraculous vine that might have saved the South had become, in the eyes of many, a notorious vine bound to consume it. Though William Faulkner, Eudora Welty and others in that first great generation of Southern writers largely ignored kudzu, its metaphorical attraction became irresistible by the early s. 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.
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.
But for others, kudzu was a vine with a story to tell, symbolic of a strange hopelessness that had crept across the landscape, a lush and intemperate tangle the South would never escape. Confronted by these bleak images, some Southerners began to wear their kudzu proudly, evidence of their invincible spirit. Kudzu: A Southern Musical toured the country. 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.
In the latest careful sampling, the U. Forest Service reports that kudzu occupies, to some degree, about , acres of forestland, an area about the size of a small county and about one-sixth the size of Atlanta. By way of comparison, the same report estimates that Asian privet had invaded some 3. Invasive roses had covered more than three times as much forestland as kudzu. And though many sources continue to repeat the unsupported claim that kudzu is spreading at the rate of , acres a year—an area larger than most major American cities—the Forest Service expects an increase of no more than 2, acres a year.
Even existing stands of kudzu now exude the odor of their own demise, an acrid sweetness reminiscent of grape bubble gum and stink bug.
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