Kudzu: A Deliberate Introduction that Went Terribly Wrong
In Georgia, the legend says
That you must close your windows
At night to keep it out of the house.
The glass is tinged with green, even so...From the poem, "Kudzu," by James Dickey who has also called it "the vegetable form of cancer"
and the vine that ate the South.
During the 1940s, he traveled across the southeast starting Kudzu Clubs to honor what he called "the miracle vine."
Cope was very disappointed when the U.S. government stopped advocating the use of kudzu in 1953.
The problem is that it just grows too well!
The climate of the Southeastern U.S. is perfect for kudzu.
The vines grow as much as a foot per day during summer months, climbing trees, power poles, and anything else they contact.
Under ideal conditions kudzu vines can grow sixty feet each year, and much of the South IS ideal!
It now covers about 7 million acres, including 2 million of forest
The USDA declared kudzu to be a weed in 1972!
While they help prevent erosion, the vines can also destroy valuable forests by preventing trees from getting sunlight.
The street pigeon, Columba livia
Africanized bees
Yellow Star Thistle (Centaurea solstitialis)
Maintained by Dr. C.M. Rodrigue