I was driving through Atlanta a few years ago and I saw a billboard that read, "The Only Thing That Has Better Coverage Than Georgia Electric is Kudzu!" It made me laugh because anyone who has spent any time in the south knows about Kudzu. It will cover anything, very quickly. Some of its nicknames are "Foot-A-Night-Vine" and "Mile-A-Minute-Vine."
Kudzu was first seen in the United States at the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exposition, where it was promoted as a forage crop for cattle. Visitors to the exhibition were taken by Kudzu's large leaves and highly-fragrant purple blooms, embracing the plant for ornamental purposes.
The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) planted it widely and, from 1935 to the early '50s, the Soil Conservation Service encouraged farmers to plant Kudzu to reduce soil erosion. Then the trouble began! It was discovered, too late, that the southeastern United States has near-perfect conditions for Kudzu to grow out of control - hot, humid summers, frequent rainfall and temperate winters with few hard freezes. In 1953, it was declared "planta non grata" by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which termed it a nuisance weed. It's the scourge of the American south because it is almost impossible to kill, defying most of the weapons in the arsenal including mowing, spraying with herbicides and prescribed burning. Containment costs have escalated into the millions annually.
However, scientists are reporting the first evidence that root extracts from kudzu show promise in medical applications and it is also being evaluated as a potential source of biofuel such as ethanol, so... "it ain't over 'till it's over!"
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