Posted on Thursday, 17th December 2009 by Interloper
Kudzu is a species of fast-growing vine native to Japan.
Renowned for variety of useful applications, kudzu is often grown as a food source for grazing animals, who reportedly love the taste. It is also used to enhance soil conditions, due to an extensive root system that helps transfer minerals between the different layers of earth.
Research has indicated that that kudzu could also have medicinal uses ranging from the treatment of the symptoms of menopausal women to reducing alcohol cravings in alcoholics.
But for all its apparent usefulness, the plant has proven to be a blight in the United States, where it was first introduced in 1876. Marketed as both as a way to feed livestock and as an ornamental plant, the trailing creeper would not only flourish in its new conditions, but eventually grow out of control.
Between the 1930’s and 50’s a bunch of unlikely villains calling themselves the “Soil Conservation Service” began encouraging farmers in the Southern United States to plant kudzu in order improve soil quality and prevent erosion. It was quickly discovered that the southern states provided perfect growing conditions for the creeper, combining high humidity, frequent rainfalls and mild winters. In 1953 the United States Department of Agriculture declared kudzu a weed, but it was already too late, for the kudzu had taken root.
And impressive roots they were, for kudzu features an expansive and resilient root system that makes it almost impossible to entirely destroy. Most techniques for removing the creeper consist simply of repeatedly cutting it back until the root system goes into shock and dies. This is no easy task, considering the vine is able to grow as much as one foot in length with each passing day.
In Japan the growth of the plant is moderated by harsh winter frosts that penetrate the deep root system of the plant, but in the Southern United States temperatures rarely drop low enough to challenge the plant’s survivability.
Kudzu is also the name of a Linux command used to detect changes in system hardware, as well as a comic strip about rural Southerners.
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