Kudzu Research Paper

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What Is This Plant Called Kudzu? Environmental Science Professor Garmon Everest On-Line Lisa Bosworth November 4, 2011 I can remember as a little girl going out with my father to a golf course in West Des Moines, Iowa to water the greens. Sometimes I would go with him when he had to kill some unwanted weeds. One thing I don’t recall is this weed, or better yet vine, that seems to be everywhere in the south. It is called Kudzu. This plant is very hard to kill. And it grows so very fast taking over and killing seemingly everything it comes in contact with. This plant did not originate in the United States. It came here from Asia and was thought to be a solution to erosion control. It has helped the erosion problem in some areas, however, the negative impact was something they did not see coming. Pueraria lobata (Willdenow) Ohwi, commonly known as Kudzu, is indigenous to the eastern Asia. Japan, Korea and China are included in this region. It initially came to the United States in 1876 because it was thought that it could be used in gardens complimentary to other foliage. There was another use for this insidious vine and that was to feed livestock. This vine did not turn out to be profitable food for livestock as it was very hard to cut and equally difficult to…show more content…
It grows very well in forest-like environments similar to that of Asia, It enjoys very high summer temperature and loves a lot of rain. However, Kudzu adapts to its environment in areas like pastures, rail embarkments, inland water banks, all areas whether it is natural or semi-natural habitat. Kudzu does not like cold weather. This is probably the reason why the northern states within the USA do not have Kudzu. It can survive frosted soil and is partial to loose soil, but adapts in otherwise less favorable conditions. This is especially apparent in the PH of the soil. Kudzu survives ph in soil that registers from

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