FABACEAE - - Legume Family

* Pueraria montana (Loureiro) Merrill var. lobata (Willdenow) van der Maesen & S. Almeida — Kudzu

* Non-native. Native of e. Asia.

Habitat:

Roadsides, waste areas; native of e. Asia. Kudzu was strongly promoted in the 1920's and 1930's in the Southeastern United States as a stabilizer of eroded areas. Hundreds of Kudzu Clubs formed, and Kudzu Songbooks were published. It is now notorious as a weed and symbol of the South. Despite its notoriety in the popular press, kudzu is an ecologically relatively trivial (though conspicuous) weed, since it rarely produces viable seeds in our area, and generally does not invade high quality natural areas. The thickened rhizome can weigh as much as 150 kg, and is the source of a high quality cooking starch prized in the Orient. The purple flowers smell like artificial grape flavoring. The leaves are very frost-sensitive.

Habitat information from:
Weakley, Alan S., Flora of the Southern and Mid-Atlantic States, Working Draft of 21 May 2015.

Kartesz, J.T., The Biota of North America Program (BONAP). 2015. North American Plant Atlas. (http://bonap.net/napa). Chapel Hill, N.C. [maps generated from Kartesz, J.T. 2015. Floristic Synthesis of North America, Version 1.0. Biota of North America Program (BONAP). (in press)].