KUDZU GROWS FROM HELPFUL ALLY TO HARMFUL ENEMY

Summertime, time for family vacations. For many it means heading south to the land of cotton, majestic homes and ancient trees. And it's hard to miss the huge areas covered in vines that are smothering all those trees.

It's not the Spanish moss that you always think of when you picture the South. Growing up I was fortunate enough to have traveled to many of the 50 states. Twenty some odd years later I have learned that the viney looking thing growing all over those trees was kudzu.

Kudzu is native to Asia and is a climbing, semi-woody perennial vine in the pea family. Each leaf has three dark green leaflets about 3 to 10 inches in length.

Flowers develop on kudzu in late June into September. The fruit is found in bean-like clusters with hairy pods. Few of the seeds produced are viable, therefore the spreading is typically done underground. The root system can be found anywhere from 7 to 10 feet deep and weigh 300 to 400 pounds. This helps to explain why kudzu is so difficult to kill. As may as 30 vines may grow from a single root crown, but much of the plant is underground.

Kudzu was introduced into the United States in 1876 at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. It was first recognized for its clusters of purple and yellow blooms emitting a grape-like fragrance along with its rapid growth. By the turn of the century it was gaining favor with farmers in the South for its potential as livestock forage. It was discovered that kudzu had more nutritional values than alfalfa and prospered as a forage for the next 20 years.

From the late 1920's to the mid 1940's kudzu was also hailed for its erosion control properties. Years of poor stewardship had left much of the South in a crisis situation. A 1936 land survey of nearly two billion acres found that over 700-million acres had been severely eroded.

Folks in this area found themselves struggling to make ends meet in the infertile subsoil. With kudzu's deep rooting system, high leaf production and tangled mass of vines to prevent soil erosion and its ability as a legume to put nutrients back in the soil, kudzu had reached it's heyday. During this time period over 500,000 acres were planted to kudzu.

Kudzu was hailed as the "Savior of the South." It prospered in roadsides and right-of -ways. Anywhere you could find bare soil and erosion, you could plant it. By the late 1940's kudzu started to show it's ugly side. It was difficult to manage and even harder to eliminate. It has the capability to grow 60 to 100 feet annually. Kudzu was consuming buildings and utility poles. It was invading forest stands by attacking from the edges. Any time a clear cut was conducted kudzu was soon to follow.

In 1953 the U.S. Department of Agriculture removed kudzu from its list of permissible cover crops. In 1993 the estimated economic cost of kudzu was about $50 million annually. In 1996 it was estimated that it covered at least seven million acres. Besides the South, kudzu has been found in Ohio, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and, yes, even in good ole Missouri.

It has been recorded in the Southeast Missouri counties of Cape Girardeau, Bollinger, Dunklin, Scott, Wayne, Reynolds and along U.S. Hwy. 67 in Madison and St. Francis counties. It has also been recorded in at least a dozen other counties as far north as Lewis County. These are only counties with recorded sites; kudzu may be found in counties that we are not aware. It is often overlooked and confused with native vines such as poison ivy and wild grape.

Kudzu, if not kept in check, could lead to both an economic and a environmental catastrophe. Imagine the damage it could do if left unchecked to run through the Ozarks.

What can we do about it?

If you have it on your property or you believe you have it, contact your local conservation office. From there we can work with you to develop a plan that will work for you to eradicate the kudzu. There are many methods to use in attacking the kudzu: cutting, digging, disking, prescribed burning and herbicides. Newer methods still being researched include biological (the use of insects) and the promising use of a fungicide. However, it is still patent pending.

If you want to kill kudzu, keep in mind it will take more than one treatment. Kudzu is a survivor and is tougher to kill than most plants.

Like most exotics species, once introduced they have no natural predator or natural means of control. They then run rampant across the countryside. Other examples include teasle, johnson grass, purple loosestrife and the zebra mussels (incidental release). There are many, many more. Too many to list, the basic message is that the grass is not always greener on the other side. Bigger is not always better.

We have native species with the same qualities as those abroad, we just overlook them because we see them every day. Grow native, but that's another article.

For more information on kudzu, contact your local conservation office or look it up on the Missouri Department of Conservation Web site at www.conservation.state.mo.us/nathis/exotic/vegman/fifteen.htm.

Jim Schultz is a private land conservation biologist for the Missouri Department of Conservation.