Kudzu

Great informational video about Kudzu! It helped me learn more about it for Science Olympiad. That stuff is everywhere!

You are AWESOME. Good to know I'm not the only one thinking like this.

it was introduced to counter desertification of the soil also its good for grazing. Its also beautiful imo.

it's so quick you might actually see it grow before your eyes

David G. Fairchild married Marian Bell, the daughter of Alexander Graham Bell. Fairchild worked for the USDA as a scientist who brought plants for agriculture to the USA and provided photographs for the first 2 years at least to the National Geographic Magazine, so he helped start the NatGeo. The Book of Kudzu by William Shurtleff is free on Google Books. I have 2 blogs on kudzu. Kudzu would make a good companion brownie for marijuana brownie since it detoxes the liver and pancreas and marijuana does not. It also works as a vascular dilator if you are an athlete or cannot buy the little blue pill.

kudzu is actually pretty healthy and can be used as food. people should use the plant, not just kill it with herbicides

A healing plant

It is edible.......the roots have a great starch and the vines can be used in basket making.   The VINE that ATE the south is NOW being eaten.......;)

We also have this stuff in Western Illinois.

The subterranean stem of this plant becomes materials of good starch.

I believe the UK winters are similar to ours in Tennessee, cold and rainy. So, it would probably grow. However, once it starts growing it's very difficult to control.

If you are in to permaculture...they make great ground cover with a little chop and drop also mulch. Geoff Lawton likes them.

It hasn't been 100 years since the Great Depression. There are millions of people today who have no access to green plants yet. They just don't know how healthy kudzu is, and how fast it is to get a lot in a bag. They don't know it is sweet like sweet peas as well as free and nutritious.

As a matter of fact, a group at GA Tech some 30 years ago figured out how to make fuel from this stuff. Of course, there is the guy in Chattanooga that distills Kudzu Mash (like moonshine) into Ethanol. 7 Million acres that will continue to grow back from a plant that has high sugar and starch content is just the right plant for making fuel in place of petroleum based fuels.

It does look quite amazing when all the rocks and trees are just covered with this stuff

I remember when my family would go into Mississippi from Louisiana.  When we came back, the Mississippi bridge had an inspection station.  They would ask my Dad if we were carrying out any Kudzu into Louisiana.  My Dad would say "Hell NO!  He would be asked the same on the Louisiana side too and would say the same thing.  The agriculture stations stopped in the early 70's.  For some reason, I haven't seen any Kudzu on the west side of the Mississippi in Louisiana, thank you Lord!.

I've seen it as far north as Pennsylvania, so I think it could survive the UK winters. It smells really nice in the summer (a nice apple fragrance), and the blooms are lovely, but be warned... if it escapes your property, you might have some angry neighbors.

Jumping over a kudzu bed might not hurt at all. Edit: but the bugs bother me more, ugh!

There are recipes Japan hasn't thought about yet. My kudzu juice and kudzu brownies aren't found in Japan!

葛って物凄い生命力があるけど、使い道もたくさんあるよ 根は、葛餅や漢方薬として風邪薬とか 主な成分はデンプン 葉は、飼料とか 茎は、カゴとか 花は、漢方薬やジャム等に また最近は、バイオ燃料等に成長がはやくトウモロコシより無駄が無いらしい (まだ、研究途中とのこと)