PlantFiles: Kudzu
Pueraria montana var. lobata

Relax a bit......let the plant take over.....so what! Look what our own invasive species has done to this earth! Besides, plants like this are good for absorbing atmospheric carbon dioxide (a greenhouse gas), sequestering harmful chemicals and adding oxygen to the air. I figure we should promote dense stands of plants like this to offset all the tropical forests we cut down and burn.

Maybe instead of crying about how this plant ruined your life and saying how horrible it is, lets try to see the good too.... explore its use as paper, bio-fuel, erosion control, or neighbor screening and repellant.

Think about this.....If you are concerned about a plant taking over, you are upset because of a control issue!You are upset that you can't control a species just as determined to survive on this earth as you are.

I don't know what can be further added to say what an invasive and destructive vine this is. The vines are so thick they can undermine the foundation of a house. It can completely envolop an unused shed or barn in just a few years.

Driving on a certain road, I see this plant literally draped like a blanket over tall trees, fences and anything else it can get to. It's probably choking out the life from these plants by not allowing any light to penetrate.

Anything this tenacious should be avoided, in my opinion. You can always plant something better behaved and similar in appearance. That's the beauty of the plant world. There's so many plants to choose from. You can most definably find a suitable option.

Many years ago when I was a child, I remember driving to North Carolina to visit my family. My mother asked my grandfather to stop the car so she could get some cuttings or kudzu.

Having never seen it before and not knowing anything about it, she just thought is was a great vine and covered so beautifully. My grandfather, told her kudzu would make it's way to Texas without any help from us.

Now that I am 36, I have discovered, he was right. This plant, although beautiful, is invasive and destructive and much to my chagrin is rapidly descending upon my area of the state.

Spacing: Put it in the ground and run. Seriously, the stuff doesn't seem to have issues with congestion.

Actually, both the leaves and tubers are edible. Here in the South there are recipes for fried kudzu leaves (use young leaves) and you can buy kudzu jelly (has a mild grape flavor, they say. Is made from the flowers). The tubers are actually grown and harvested in China as a ground herb.

If you don't want your property anymore - or you have a hay baler you use regularly - then it's fine to plant. Otherwise it'll take over in a heartbeat. Does have a serious use in erosion control especially along riverbanks where it works well.

Kudzu Pueraria montana var. lobata is naturalized in Texas and other States ans is considered an invasive noxious plant in Texas.

Ditto to all of the negative comments. This is one dangerous weed. If you don't have it......keep it that way.

Livestock will graze it, and I've heard that an edible jelly can be made from the blossoms. The blossoms have a thick, heavy scent that fills the air. They smell very good, but one shouldn't plant this thing just for the aroma.

The destruction that this plant causes is huge. It can kill a whole forest, each tree strangled as this creeping menace covers it.

Only 12 inches a day??? I've seen it in North Carolina grow 2 feet a day. That's an inch an hour, people! You could actually see it growing!

This is truly the most horrible weed in the United States. Brought from Japan when Philadelphia hosted the World's Fair, the USDA encourage farmers to plant it as an perpetual food source for livestock. Apparently the legume grew all too well here and has spread through the South's forests covering everything in its path like a green cancer. Please do not plant this ever!

The WORST weed ever. If there is a such thing as a super weed, this is it. Kudzu can grow up to 60 feet or more in one season and its roots can reach 14 feet deep. It can also smother entire forests. Any pieces of root left in the ground will grow and conventional herbicides won't kill it. It isn't called the "vine that ate the South" for nothing. If it appears any where on my land I'd panic. The government is doing research into a beetle that eats kudzu in its native Japan for control measures but they have to make sure it won't attack other plants.

Kudzu (Pueraria lobata) is a very bad vine; no, take that back - it is not a vine it is more like a weed. It will take over anything kills tres and all plants! DO NOT DIG IT UP AND TRANSPLANT IT! It will take over your whole yard and once you plant it, you can't remove it (or at least I can't!) I wish I could go back in time and kill it before it ever got started. If you have found a way to get rid of this irritating plant, please let me know.

The vine looks like a grape vine and can be very attractive in a small bunch. Problem is, there's no such thing as a small bunch of kudzu. I cut a stand of it down the other day and found a garage in my back yard. Actually, I knew the old garage was there and had been unused for years, but the thing was entirely covered over. And now the kudzu is coming back. Invasive is an understatement to say the least.

I have seeds for anyone who wishes to unleash this wretched plant on thier property. I will even mail them to yankees. They might possibly get some sort of variant seed that is hardy in Buffalo, New York, then this weed can choke out all the burnt out crack houses up there the way it takes over all of our trashy homes and trailers that have been unoccupied for more than two years. Truly has found its second home here in Georgia. Choking out whole state. It might actually perform as an annual vine in extremely cold climate, too risky though as your name would be forever cursed by countless generations as the person who unleashed this plauge on your hardiness zone. Wisteria-like blossoms do smell pleasantly like NeHi grape soda.

Kudzu also grows invase here in the southern midwest. I live in extreme southern Illinois(USDA zone 7a as indicated by the map on this webpage). There is a large hill about 9 miles west of my house covered in this biological anomoly. It is one of the largest known locations of Kudzu in Southern Illinois. Kudzu dies to the ground here in the winter, but it comes right back in the spring and summer with full force. We experience Georgia weather on average during the summer, with afternoon highs topping out over 90 with humid, but dry conditions. Kudzu actually grows fastest in drier weather, but growth rates differentiate constantly during the growing season. Throughout July and August, this vine grows 12 inches per day and up to 40 feet per year. When Kudzu climbs trees, it is slowed by the shade of the tree, taking a few years to advance upward. Once Kudzu reaches the top of the tree where it can recieve full sunlight, it takes off growing towards the ground. In the process, any tree, bush, or sapling is pulled down by the weight of the vine. Once the vine touches the ground, it burrows into the ground forming more complex roots, which then pop up in any random spot, begin its climbing process once more. Kudzu will grow quickest over small saplings and shrubs, but does not grow fast across the ground. It prefers anything it can climb. Illegal to cultivate in many of the eastern states due to its aggressive nature, destroying forests and taking over farmland, as well as residential areas. Kudzu seems to grow optimal in Georgia. Do not undermind the aggressive nature of this vine.

The only good way to control Kudzu is to fence it in and graze livestock. Cows, Sheep, or goats will take care of it. As small farms have dwindled, this plant has taken over any uncultivated ungrazed area from Virginia south. It does need adequate rainfall so you folks in the arid areas are probably safe, unless you irrigate it. It will survive winters that reach 15 below for short periods.

Kudzu is a major invasive weed in North Carolina's Piedmont. It will sprawl over telephone and power poles, growing several feet per day--not a joke. This plant was introduced for erosion control, but quickly takes over literally acres--and don't imagine that freeze will stop it. It came back after 15 degrees and then 2-foot snow in the same winter. Very Noxious in the Southeast. Houston better look out--or plant it over the worst eyesores.

This plant is taking over areas of Houston. It can be found on the side of every freeway and sprouting up in random places in gardens. Very much an obnoxious, invasive plant here.

"May be invasive" is way too polite. Any moderate climate is a potential victim for this rampant-growing exotic imported to the southern U.S. several decades ago. The tap roots are very deep, which makes it harder to kill through cold winter temperatures; and reports indicate it is becoming hardier as it spreads northward. (Or maybe it's always been that hardy, and it's just now getting a toehold in other areas.)

The only positive attributes of this plant: it does indeed prevent soil erosion on steep banks, and its roots can be dried and used in various ways including food. (These virtues are gravely overshadowed by its incredibly aggressive growth habit.)