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Several vines often confused with creeping killer kudzu
Missouri
Kudzu, the fast-growing vine that can cover barns and lethally smother whole rows of trees, is often confused with other, far less destructive vining plants, a University of Missouri Extension specialist said.
"Kudzu can choke out everything," said Fred Fishel, coordinator of the MU Integrated Pest Management program. "Where I grew up down south, you see entire pastures and homesteads overgrown with that stuff." He noted that kudzu can grow more than a foot a day. "They used to say, 'Don't stand in front of it.'"
Fishel said kudzu, imported from Japan as an ornamental plant in the 1800s, has been found no further north than Lincoln, Neb. "I don't really see it spreading around here to where it gets out of hand," he said. "Along the Arkansas border is about as far north as it goes, except in isolated pockets."
The town of Richmond, Mo., near Kansas City is one such pocket, he said. "There's a pretty good sized infestation right in the middle of town. No one seems to know how it got there-- it's probably a good story."
Kudzu, a perennial, kills other plants by growing around and over them, blocking out the sunlight. "It was listed as officially 'noxious' in 2001," Fishel said, adding that the government encouraged the planting of kudzu in the 1930s to curb erosion. "It went bad, definitely."
Several other vines are sometimes confused with the invasive plant, but Fishel said kudzu is easily identifiable by its large, trifoliate leaves. Copper-colored hairs on the underside of young stems are "a very distinguishing feature," and hairs are also found on the underside of the leaf. Its pink-to-purple flowers "are about the size and shape of a squirrel's tail, and they have a nice odor--like grape juice," he said.
One similar looking plant is Raccoon Grape, a perennial vine that is far less aggressive than kudzu. "Going by at 60 mph, you could very easily confuse it," Fishel said. Another is burcucumber, a summer annual vine that thrives in wet areas and "can take over a fence row." Unlike kudzu, it has tendrils that help it to climb.
A third vine commonly confused with kudzu is Virginia creeper, a perennial that can be identified by its five serrated leaves. "It's the stuff that grows all over the telephone poles," Fishel said. "It stays confined to whatever it's growing on. It doesn't sprawl all over everything like kudzu does."
Once established, kudzu is extremely difficult to eradicate. Fishel remembered his graduate student days at Mississippi State University, where "we had a couple of kudzu studies." The researchers would spray kudzu with various herbicides, "and it would knock it back for a couple of weeks. But a couple of weeks after that, it would look like you hadn't done anything at all."
Herbicide studies continue, he said, but no one has yet come up with a cheap and reliable kudzu control. "It's just really tough. It's like the Energizer bunny."
Fishel said the worst potential problem with kudzu is that it's a host to soybean rust, a serious disease of soybeans that has not yet been reported in the United States. "It could be really bad news if soybean rust comes to this country, especially for soybean growers down south."
Date: 9/21/04
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