..Haven't seen any around here, so perhaps you can fill us in on how it affects what you do, and how it acts with your hunting sports. Found this article..
Kudzu Facts- Although it seems like an obvious fact now that kudzu is a nuisance, its fall from grace from ornamental plant to weed took nearly 100 years. For many years, the fast-growing vine was widely marketed for use for shading porches, as food for cattle and a cover plant to prevent soil erosion.
The flowering Japanese plant was introduced to the United States in 1876 at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia and was exhibited again at the New Orleans Exposition in 1883.
It wasn't until 1970, when it had covered millions of acres of the country, mostly in Southern states, that the USDA declared kudzu a common weed, according to Claire Wilson of Auburn University. It was later listed as a "noxious" species. Now, without natural enemies in the region, it spreads at the rate of 150,000 acres each year, faster than it can be mowed or poisoned to control it.
Here are 13 things to know about kudzu:
1-Kudzu grows up to a foot per day. The rate of growth led to its nickname: "The Vine that Ate the South”.
2-Researchers have studied the possibility of using kudzu to make ethanol.
3-Farmers were paid to plant kudzu. In the 1930s, the government paid up to $8 an acre to plant kudzu, hoping to curb erosion
and add nitrogen to the soil.
4-Kudzu covers 7 million acres across the
southeastern U.S.
5-Kudzu can be useful. The sturdy vines are used to make baskets and artworks, and blossoms are used to make jelly.
6-All kudzu species are native to Asia. They come from the countries of Japan, China, India and Taiwan.
7-Kudzu was initially ornamental. By 1900, kudzu seeds were sold as an ornamental vine to shade porches and courtyards of Southern homes.
8-Kudzu came to the U.S. in the 1800s.
Kudzu was shown at the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exposition, but those plants were destroyed. An 1883 exposition in New Orleans introduce the vine to the South.
9-Kudzu gets its name from a mistake.
The American word "kudzu" is a misspelling of the Japanese word for the plant, “kuzu”.
10- Kudzu is edible. Certain parts are, anyway, Leaves can be boiled, deep fried or eaten raw. Roots can be ground into flour or cooked like potatoes. Some people make jelly from the blossoms.
11- Kudzu is extremely bad for the ecosystems that it invades because it smothers other plants and trees under a blanket of leaves, hogging all the sunlight and keeping other species in its shade.
12- Both cattle and goats will eat kudzu and will weaken and eventually control the plant.
13- There are at least 15 types of kudzu. The kudzu species we see in the south is one of the many species generally categorized as kudzu.
*Pictured is Kudzu in Marion, NC
(By Kelly Kazek)
