I must admit I am fascinated by kudzu. This confession will make a lot of people laugh, especially those who live in the South and up along the Eastern States.
I am fascinated because most of my life, I never knew what kudzu was. I had never heard of kudzu.
People will laugh because they’ve lived all their lives around kudzu and to them, it’s a major pain in the grass!
For those of you (like me) who didn’t know: kudzu is a vine that was introduced by the Japanese at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia in 1876. It was heavily promoted as a method of erosion control and as a fast-growing feed for livestock. “Fast growing” is an understatement! In optimal conditions, a kudzu vine can grow 1 foot per day, up to 100 feet in length. Kudzu was classified as a weed in 1970 and was placed on the list of Federal Noxious weeds in 1997. I wrote a blog about Kudzu several years ago. I received the greatest number of comments from people about kudzu, more than any other blog posts (the runner-up was about scrapple, but that was another story).
This year, the kudzu we observed on our summer tour seemed particularly lush and green. It must have been enjoying those ideal conditions mentioned earlier. In some areas, it had everything around it (plants, trees, houses, telephone poles) covered up in a blanket of flowing green leaves, making spooky shapes in the woods. I knew it was still summer, but it made me think of the coming fall and Halloween.
I’m incredibly grateful for the opportunities I’ve had to travel and to make friends through our mutual appreciation of the music of John Denver. I’m also happy to share what I’ve seen in my travels, even something as simple as a noxious weed, because I KNOW people love to share stories and lore about this crazy vine, and I KNOW people love to read your comments!
I invite you to share your Kudzu knowledge here in the comments:
