Kudzu
Pueraria montana
34.02, -84.58
Field Notes
Description:
Deciduous leaves are alternate and compound, with three broad leaflets up to 4 inches across. Leaflets may be entire or deeply 2-3 lobed with hairy margins. Individual flowers, about 1/2 inch long, are purple, highly fragrant and borne in long hanging clusters. Flowering occurs in late summer and is soon followed by production of brown, hairy, flattened, seed pods, each of which contains three to ten hard seeds. Like other exotic species, the introduction to other areas is due to human actions. Seeds are spread by mammals and birds. Kudzu are plants adapted to the drought. Only aboveground portions are damaged by frost; thick storage roots grow as deep as 1 metre. It forms new perennial root crowns from stem nodes touching the ground. The ecological requirements of the species are those of the subtropical and temperate habitat areas.
Habitat:
The natural range of Pueraria montana in east Asia, is the India, Myanmar, Indochina, China, Korea and Japan to Thailand, Malaysia, the Pacific Islands and north Australia.
In the United States, Pueraria montana is extensively reported in Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Washington, D.C., Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, Mississippi, North Carolina, North Dakota, New Jersey, Oregon, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia. Of these states, three in the southeast have the heaviest infestations: Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi.
Notes:
Spotted in an ppen & previously cleared/disturbed lot between industrial complex and uncultivated wetlands/drainage area.
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