The best way to deal with kudzu or other invasive plants is to prevent them from spreading. For more ways to control kudzu, check out Dr. James H. Miller's Kudzu Eradication and Management paper. The best way to fight invasive species is to prevent them from occurring in the first place. Instructional Material. Though its name makes it sound heavenly, the invasive tree of heaven is no angel.
Learn all about this devilish invader. Wild garlic mustard is a highly destructive invasive species in the United States, but anyone can help stop its spread. Back To Top. Stories in Indiana Kudzu: The Invasive Vine that Ate the South Kudzu looks innocent enough yet the invasive plant easily overtakes trees, abandoned homes and telephone poles. After 3 years, produces purple or red flowers Edible? Kudzu leaves, flowers and roots can be eaten.
Impact Info. References and Links. General Impact For a detailed account of the environmental impacts of P. The information in this document is summarised below. Kudzu is widely believed to drastically reduce biodiversity because of its ability to smother other vegetation and develop large-scale monocultures Alderman ; Forseth and Innis , in Sun et al. It's actually native to Asia.
In fact, writings dating back to A. It's been used there for centuries as a homeopathic remedy and for other purposes that we'll explore later. Although kudzu grows like a weed throughout the U. Considering kudzu's origin and reputation, you may be wondering how the plant got to the U. It made its American debut in at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition, where it was touted as an ornamental vine meant to provide shade.
Several decades later, the Soil Conservation Service promoted kudzu cultivation as a way to control soil erosion caused by deforestation in the South. Kudzu grows quickly and easily and many swear by its healing virtue, but some landowners in the Southeastern part of the U.
Before we find out why, we need to learn more about how kudzu and how it grows. Kudzu belongs to the legume family and is related to the pea, soybean, peanut, alfalfa, aster and oat. Interestingly enough, it's also related to the cannabis plant [source: Britton ]. A legume is a plant that produces its fruit in the form of a pod. A kudzu's pod blossoms into a tall, purple flower that has a grapelike fragrance.
In late summer, the flower turns into brown, flat, hairy-looking pods that contain anywhere from two to 10 seeds. The catch is that only kudzu vines draped over other plants or objects can produce seed pods, because blossoms grow from those hanging vines.
An entire cluster produces two or three healthy seeds, but they can germinate even after several years of dormancy [source: Everest ]. As any landowner who's dealt with kudzu can tell you, however, this lack of viable seeds doesn't make much difference in the kudzu survival rate. The secret to the plant's durability is in the roots -- they sprout new ones to reproduce very quickly. These root crowns are relentless and have been known to hitchhike in truckloads of fill dirt and take up residency hundreds of miles away.
They set up camp right on the soil surface of the ground. From there, these starch roots grow as deep as 12 feet 3. These roots are rich in carbohydrates and have the unique ability to tap water from deep underground sources, which makes kudzu survive in dry, hot conditions where other plants can't. At the ground's surface, kudzu vines sprout outward and upward from root crowns. New root crowns sprout every few feet along a vine, attach to the soil and spring yet more root crowns.
Meanwhile, vines continue to grow as much as 2 feet 61 centimeters a day in summer months. Attaching to a tree, pole, fence or building, kudzu can grow up to 80 feet 24 meters high. That's why some people call it the "mile-a-minute vine. Kudzu leaves grow in bunches of three and measure 2 to 4 inches 5 to 10 centimeters in diameter. These leaves twist and turn, depending on the intensity of sunlight that's beaming down, to provide optimal shade for their vines and roots while working their own version of photosynthesis.
Photosynthesis is how green plants turn sunlight and water into the energy they use for food. As we learned earlier, kudzu's history begins in ancient Asia. For centuries, people in China, Japan and India have used kudzu for homeopathic remedies for symptoms of heart disease and high blood pressure [source: Drugsite Trust ].
It's even been used as an alternative remedy to relieve muscular aches and to treat measles. The protocol suggested in existing literature was followed [ 24 , 29 , 30 ]. For input-output analysis, the event years span from to as we used the latest IMPLAN data for the state of Oklahoma [ 23 ]. Additionally, all total economic results for both industries are reported in dollars. Therefore, five years period present the year —, reported in US dollars.
Monte Carlo simulation was based on the presence point identified in Oklahoma Fig 1. Results for all direct and total economic impacts, including employment and industry output, for all scenarios involving the timber industry are presented in Table 1.
Currently in Oklahoma, there is about 2. The direct effects represent the direct value loss for the sum of all sector output values in each year of kudzu dispersal. However, economic impacts under vegetative spread scenarios scenario B and C , which reveal relatively lower spread rate of kudzu, are less severe Table 2 and Table 3. In this study, we projected the aerial extent of kudzu spread across the timberland regions in the State of Oklahoma and its potential consequences in the economy over the next five years.
Our simulation results, in an event of aggressive seed dispersal, revealed the pervasive infestation of kudzu across timber regions of SE Oklahoma. Multiple biotic e. Not to mention, some of these impacts could be seen in the decrease of timber products, a decrease in output by primary wood product producers and other manufacturing companies, and lack of marketable timber and income for private landowners.
These results could have several management and policy implications. First, as is evident from our analysis, the potential impacts of kudzu could be highly detrimental to timber companies, thus a few best management practices BMP can help control current populations. While one-size-fits-all formulas may not work in BMP implementation, past research encourages mechanical or herbicidal spraying based on the patch size and age, as well as the habitat being infested [ 34 , 35 ].
Second, while reactive practices such as mechanical removal or herbicidal spray can eradicate kudzu invasion, any form of active land management practices come at a cost to the landowners [ 36 ]. Therefore, emphasis on BMPs that prevent the introduction and promote early detection of invasive species are the best cost-effective approaches for the sustainable management of non-natives [ 37 ].
In addition to information on preventive and reactive BMPs, information of potential future costs can act as an incentive to bring awareness to kudzu and limit its expansion. The appropriate outreach response from federal and state agencies, as well as university Extension programs, are recommended. Third, if future research is conducted on stakeholder perceptions of kudzu and willingness to pay WTP for BMPs, management plans can be more targeted and may benefit all involved parties.
Results from this research can inform stakeholders of potential economic impacts and encourage them to seek out different BMPs, while future stakeholder analysis studies can provide a clear understanding of where management plans should begin for each stakeholder group based on WTP.
Fourth, while results suggest that kudzu does not seem to reach the northern areas of Oklahoma, we cannot rule out such possibility in the future. It is worth noting that kudzu is a carrier of soybean rust Phakopsora pachyrhizi or P. Soybean rust is a fungus that attacks legume foliage leading to leaf lesions, early defoliation, and reduced pod production [ 39 ].
Kudzu leaves act as vectors for soybean rust, allowing it to survive winters and infect soybean crops in the spring [ 39 ]. Although the majority of soybean farms are found in the northern part of the state, there is a potential for future expansion of kudzu into these regions and can put the soybean industry at severe risk of production loss.
While our analysis did not take this into account, public awareness on potential economic impact of Kudzu on soybean industry is needed.
Currently, kudzu is only listed on a handful of state noxious weed lists [ 41 ]. Without listing kudzu as a noxious weed, the transportation and growth of kudzu is not regulated, as well as there being no liability for controlling kudzu on personal property. Without this policy framework for most states, not much is being done to slow the movement of kudzu. Additionally, the establishment of kudzu in more northern areas, beyond its current distribution range, is very likely [ 33 , 42 ].
Kudzu has demonstrated a strong tolerance for cooler climates [ 9 , 43 , 44 ]; its ability to establish in areas with larger soybean or timber industries can have both greater economic and ecological impacts than were estimated in this research.
Finally, the study area represents a unique gradient of forest and open rangeland that allows the economic framework of this research to be mimicked for other forested or rangeland regions.
Finally, our study results made two methodological contributions to existing literature. First, similar to Kudzu, invasion from other invasive species e. Therefore, the economic impact analysis of timber loss—the method used in our research—is readily applicable to other invasive species of interest.
Second, the timber industry in Oklahoma is dominated by the pine forests [ 46 ], which are the most economically important forest types in the southern United States [ 47 ].
As such, social accounting multipliers capturing the relationship between total and direct economic losses jobs, value-added, output, labor income from this study are applicable to other kudzu-impacted pine forests having similar economic realities. To this end, landowners, land managers, and government agency professionals from other southern states can utilize our findings for potential economic impact analysis.
A few caveats of this study are worth noting. First, although there is documentation on kudzu invasion in SE Oklahoma, we could not find real data that could be used to gauge its potential economic impacts in the region. Also, as revealed from our analysis Table 4 and Table 5 , the direct and total economic losses in terms of outputs, valued-added, and the jobs substantially change depending upon assumed land area under kudzu invasion.
Since the reproductive as well as seed dispersal behavior of kudzu is still not clear [ 19 ] and our simulation is based on several assumptions, we have provided possible aggressive and passive scenarios of kudzu invasion. Finally, while economic projections from input-output analysis provide broader societal impacts beyond a directly affected sector, they are limited for five years due to uncertainty of structural changes in economy [ 48 ].
Therefore, readerships are advised to make a cautious interpretation of our study results. The results from this study suggest that kudzu has invaded the south-eastern region of Oklahoma.
Although kudzu has not reached the northern region of the state, it may invade northern soybean farms due to seed dispersal in the future. In timberland regions, the reduced timber availability, which serves as input for several timber products industries, may impact their supply chain dynamics.
Additionally, these economic effects will have broader societal impacts and they affect employees who will have to suffer layoffs or alter their spending behaviors. Finally, while the economic impacts estimated in this study are for the five year period, they are expected to prompt discussion of management actions that can help control further spread of invasive species, including kudzu.
National Center for Biotechnology Information , U. PLoS One. Published online Mar Christopher B. Edgar 2 University of Minnesota, St.
Mirko Di Febbraro, Editor.
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