Kudzu (Pueraria montana)
INTRODUCED/INVASIVE.
In a public park near a riverside.
Kudzu is a highly invasive vine which was introduced (from Japan and southeast China) in the 1930s and 1940s for soil erosion prevention. It is notorious for "swallowing up" natural areas of the southeastern US and threatening native plant communities.
''Pueraria montana'' is a species of plant in the botanical family Fabaceae. At least three sub-species are known. It is closely related to other species in the genus ''Pueraria'' and the common name kudzu is used for all of these species and hybrids between them. The morphological differences between them are subtle, they can breed with each other, and it appears that introduced kudzu populations in the United States have ancestry from more than one of the species.
