Kudzu ( Pueraria lobata ) is a perennial vine from China that is extremely invasive in the southeastern United States . It can grow in U.S. Department of Agriculture plant hardiness zone 5 through 10 , though it is most seriously incursive in regions of the Southeast that fall down in zones 7 through 9 .
Kudzu ( Pueraria order Lobata ) is a perennial vine from China that is super invasive in the southeastern United States . It can grow in U.S. Department of Agriculture plant hardiness zone 5 through 10 , though it is most seriously invasive in part of the Southeast that fall in zones 7 through 9 . Kudzu is in the legume family and has great light-green leaves and fragrant royal flowers .
Rapid Growth
Few plant life grow as fast askudzu . It can put on 1 foot of ontogenesis per 24-hour interval and up to 100 feet of growth in a time of year , skin over tree diagram , cars , houses or anything else in its course . Though it is dormant in wintertime , the get-up-and-go produced by the rampant vines is stored in a massive solution system that burgeon forth with vigor each spring . The giant taproots can be 12 column inch in diameter and weigh up to 400 pounds .
Environmental Tolerances
Not only does kudzu grow fast but it also is liberal of a all-encompassing range of environmental factors that allow it to survive and adapt in harsh conditions . It is shade - tolerant and often takes root in the deep spook of the forest where little else grows , twine up the trunks of trees and finally overcoming them . It develop well in extremely juiceless , hot , rocky locations like the exposed soil left at construction situation . Wet clay soils are equally favorable to this remarkably adaptable coinage .
Voluntary Planting
Incredibly , kudzu was intentionally introduced to the United States and planted on millions of land in the Southeast in the thirties and 1940s . It was vaunt as a soil - building crop to help regenerate the degraded lands depleted by the cultivation methods of the cotton wool diligence . The industrial plant does enrich the grease and is a very nourishing provender for livestock , but the encroaching potential of the metal money was not pick out until it was too belated . The assistance of homo in ground kudzu is one of the basal element that has direct to its dominance in the landscape painting .
Resistant to Eradication
Kudzu is extremely difficult to eradicate in the landscape , largely due to the sizing and persistency of its monolithic ascendent system . Chemical weed killer kill the leaves on tangency , but the woody vines resprout straightaway and postulate constant reapplication to be effective . Mechanical agency are costly and not very effective . The mass of farseeing , twining vines clogs mower and other equipment and makes it a very deadening process . As with herbicides , mechanical clearing must be repeated with vigilance until all regrowth has ceased .
