Invasive Species: The Kudzu

by Lea

This essay was written for Elizabeth Vroom’s Science class.

There have been many problems with the kudzu. When introduced, this vine was only going to be used for a crop plant, animal feed, and medicine, but ended up being a bit of a hazard. The kudzu has spread outside human control, growing over whole forest and killing them by blocking out the sunlight. This has also affected the animals that live in those forests, such as the birds. They have trouble finding homes for their young because the trees’ branches have been covered with the vine. This vine even covers whole houses, basically anything that stands still.

Mostly, this vine stops other native plants from growing. This my even make some animal species die out because the plants that they eat have been wiped out. It is also hard to drive on some roads and many people miss turns on roads because the roads and road signs have been grown over. There are also many changes in the landscape because the vine covers everything, like a blanket.

The Kudzu looks like a giant carpet of leaves, with roots that are thick and go down very deep. The leaves look like little stars that have three parts. The flowers can be all sorts of colors, from white to dark purple. They also look like lupine flowers, with columns of flowers down the stalk.

You may ask why the kudzu does so well here. Well, it is mainly because of our weather. Hot, humid, very frequent rainfall, very few hard freezes in the winter, and no natural predators, down in southeast U.S. I mean.

I hope at some point, people will be able to control the kudzu, because if they don’t, it might even take over the whole U.S.A., and I really hope it doesn’t lead to that.