Kudzu Essay ⋆ Environment Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

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Kudzu is a woody or semiwoody, perennial, deciduous, and leguminous vine. Kudzu grows in a wide range of conditions and soil types, and thrives in areas with abundant sunlight and rainfall, and warm summers and mild winters. Kudzu vines can reach 100 feet in length, and will grow up and over trees, buildings, hillsides, and across flat ground. Kudzu’s relatively high rates of energy expended in photosynthesis, ability to fix nitrogen, and tendency to root rapidly contributes to its rapid spread. Once established, kudzu can grow up to 12 inches per day in peak conditions, with tap roots averaging 4-8 inches in diameter and up to 6 feet in length. Such a large root mass may weight up to 400 pounds and can store water, enabling the plant to survive occasional droughts.

The genus Pueraria includes 17 species spanning its native range from China and portions of India to Korea, Japan, Malaysia, and Indonesia. The vine has been integrated into medicines, cuisines, textile production, livestock fodder, and more for over two millennia. From China, kudzu and its uses easily spread to Asian neighbors long ago. The vine is not considered a pest in that region because its growth is limited by climatic conditions, certain insects, and its multiple uses for humans.

Kudzu’s uses inspired many introductions into different climes around the world. It has reputedly taken hold without negative consequence in parts of South America, Switzerland, and Australia’s eastern territories, but its growth rate in the United States beats all. There, kudzu shifted from an exotic species introduced for environmental benefit to being re-characterized as an invasive species and a biopollutant.

Kudzu seems an inherent part of the U.S. South, but it is a relatively recent import to the continent. Kudzu made its debut in the United States in 1876 at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition, where Japanese participants had planted it to shade and decorate their pavilion. With a followup appearance at the New Orleans Exposition of 1883, kudzu became an aesthetic must. A booming mail-order business for kudzu hastened this process, as the vine was touted to grow where nothing else would.

From 1910 until the mid-1930s, kudzu was largely promoted for the production of livestock fodder, starch, cloth, and paper. By the 1930s, the Soil Conservation Service implemented numerous schemes through which the rapidly growing, nitrogen-fixing kudzu would rejuvenate depleted agricultural lands as well as reverse the effects of erosion along highways, byways, railways, and dam projects. Although some farmers had become leery of its aggressive growth, kudzu was declared “the miracle vine,” and 20,000 card-carrying members were recruited to the Kudzu Club of America by the mid-1940s. Amidst the parades, rallies, and even Kudzu Queens, kudzu grew across 500,000 southeastern acres.

Introduced Species Gone Wrong

A mere decade later, attitudes shifted dramatically as kudzu notably overgrew its intended boundaries. In 1953, concerns about kudzu overtaking native trees and shrubs, as well as built structures, led the U.S. Department of Agriculture to remove it from the list of permissible cover crops. By 1970, kudzu became a weed, and by 1997, the U.S. Congress declared it a Federal Noxious Weed.

Today, kudzu covers approximately 7.5 million acres in the United States, most extensively in Alabama, Georgia, and Mississippi, with an estimated growth rate of 120,000 acres per year. There is a high degree of genetic diversity in current kudzu populations. Kudzu’s emissions of isoprene (a photochemically reactive hydrocarbon), its ability to fix atmospheric nitrogen, and its tendency to overwhelm forest trees may substantially impact not only biodiversity, but also forest nitrogen cycles, watershed nitrogen saturation and freshwater eutrophication, and air quality. Kudzu exhibits markedly increased growth rates in response to high levels of carbon dioxide, which could in turn further increase kudzu’s competitive dominance in an era of global warming.

Efforts to eliminate or reduce kudzu are difficult and expensive. Herbicides can be applied repeatedly for up to 10 years to kill an established population of kudzu, but the larger ecosystem consequences of such applications must also be considered. Experiments in natural and introduced biocontrols are ongoing, although critics note previous examples of the cane toad in Australia and that kudzu itself is an introduced species gone wrong.

Larger-scale efforts to harvest the protein-rich, fibrous kudzu powder from its roots are ongoing, as are attempts to convert kudzu into biofuel. Naturopaths continue to investigate the myriad uses of kudzu in Asia and to adopt those healing techniques in the United States.

Bibliography:

Derek Alderman, “Channing Cope and the Making of a Miracle Vine,” Geographical Review (v.94, 2004);
Irwin Forseth, Jr., and Anne F. Innis, “Kudzu (Pueraria Montana): History, Physiology, and Ecology Combine to Make a Major Ecosystem Threat,” Critical Reviews in Plant Sciences (v.23, 2004);
William Shurtleff and Akikyo Aoyagi, The Book of Kudzu: A Culinary and Healing Guide (Autumn Press, 1977);
J.G. van der Maesen, “Revision of the Genus Pueraria DC with Some Notes on Teyleria Backer,” Wageningen Papers (v.85, Agricultural University, 1985);
J.G. van der Maesen and S.M. Almeida, “Two Corrections to the Nomenclature in Revision of Pueraria,” Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society (v.85, 1988).