June Plant of the Month: Kudzu (aka Japanese or Chinese Arrowroot, Pueraria montana)

Kudzu is a fast-growing, perennial Asian vine with fragrant purple flowers. Kudzu is notorious for aggressive spreading: it can climb trees, swallow abandoned houses, and form giant, sometimes monstrous-looking green shapes — beautiful in their own way, but also literally creepy — “the vine that ate the South.”

Kudzu was introduced to the United States at the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia and later promoted during the Dust Bowl era for erosion control. The fast-growing vine seemed ideal: fragrant flowers, forage for livestock and nitrogen-fixing benefits for poor soils. Kudzu also provides nectar for pollinators and useful fiber for baskets, paper and traditional crafts.

But kudzu quickly escaped cultivation, and today control requires persistence through repeated mowing, grazing or cutting the root crown. Note that kudzu is NOT recommended for any landscape purpose in the South.