I would be remiss not to include some pictures of the infamous kudzu that grows all over the South. As we drove through Alabama and Georgia we just knew we were going to be attacked by it's vines and end up a permanent fixture on the side of the road somewhere...
In the 1930's, a vine native to Japan was introduced throughout the United States as a highly effective means for controlling erosion. Forty years later, the USDA officially declared this miracle-vine a weed. While visitors to the South are immediately taken by scenic glimpses of kudzu-blanketed lands -capes, natives keep their doors shut to keep the creeping plant from taking over their houses. Growing better in the South than it does even in its native environment, kudzu can grow as much as a foot per day, climbing trees, barns, telephone poles--and anything else that gets in their way. And while these vines actually do help prevent erosion, they also destroy entire forests, wrapping themselves around every inch, smothering every tree from needed sunlight...We even found soap made out of it...
In the 1930's, a vine native to Japan was introduced throughout the United States as a highly effective means for controlling erosion. Forty years later, the USDA officially declared this miracle-vine a weed. While visitors to the South are immediately taken by scenic glimpses of kudzu-blanketed lands -capes, natives keep their doors shut to keep the creeping plant from taking over their houses. Growing better in the South than it does even in its native environment, kudzu can grow as much as a foot per day, climbing trees, barns, telephone poles--and anything else that gets in their way. And while these vines actually do help prevent erosion, they also destroy entire forests, wrapping themselves around every inch, smothering every tree from needed sunlight...We even found soap made out of it...
1 comment:
And just think, John and I spent hours in that stuff. It's a wonder you don't find bodies engulfed in Kudzu!
Tom
Post a Comment