Kudzu: The Vine That Covered The South In Darkness

The vine that blocked out the sun.

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SOCIAL MEDIA

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CREDITS
Created by Dylan Dubeau
Executive Producer, Director, and Director of Photography: Dylan Dubeau
Host: Tasha the Amazon
Editors: Cat Senior and Jim Pitts
Researcher, Producer: Andres Salazar
Writer: Lauren Greenwood
Camera Operator: Colin Cooper

Thumbnail courtesy of:

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Exploring the World of Plants and Fungi

[cravensean]

I once told a pal, "Most parts of kudzu are edible, " and she said, "Nobody wants to eat that much kudzu."

[ProjectPhysX]

Fast-groing plants are insane. I've seen this with the pumpkin plants in our garden. 30cm growth per day, you can literally see it move under the magnifying glass.

[deadlydingus]

Kudzu is one of those plants that I think should be a pokemon.

[Obalatan]

I wish you'd also mentioned that it makes really good forage for ruminants and they can ruin even established stands in a few years. The leaves are also edible, and as you point out, the vines make good fibre for baskets, paper, or textiles. It's a good plant that needs keeping in check rather than an out-and-out noxious agent.

[Endquire]

It seems like kudzu could be an exceptional resource that we are failing to use properly. This seems especially so as the loss of top soil and the real existential threats to agriculture loom. People really don't know how actually precarious our existence is.

[rklein]

Goats, that what we used to completely and easily wipe out all of it in a 1200 acre natural area in middle Tennessee. Put a temporary fence around the area with the kudzu and put the goats in there. Problem solved. They eat it roots and all.

[DanGamingFan]

Down here in the Carolinas, that stuff is just about EVERYWHERE. Hardly an empty lot without it at least bordering the property. And in the forests along certain highways, it's all you can see! My relatives up in the mountains all say it's looks beautiful, but I know better.

[nostalgiakarlk.f.]

Thank you so much for talking about this invasive and threatening species. I personally think there should be organizations here in the south dedicated to eradicating kudzu, as well as the similarly invasive English ivy.

[d.b.]

In Vietnam we grind the root into a starchy powder (bột sắn dây) and make a drink of it. It's supposed to be "cooling" for your body (i.e. boosting the "yin" side of things), and thus is good for treating inflammation and for general cooling down in the summer.

[Kalisis]

Kudzu is literally everywhere in Georgia. I'm so used to seeing it here, it would probably be weird NOT to see it. I never heard of bees making grape tasting honey off of it though. I wanna try that out.

[rosehawke]

There's a problem with the Kudzu Bug. It doesn't just eat kudzu. It likes ANYTHING in the legume family, including green beans as I found out one year. I had no idea what this new to me bug was that were covering my vines. I try to garden organically as much as possible, but organics wasn't cutting it for this beast. I don't have a big garden, but I would still normally get many meals from my beans. That year I only got one. The next year I planted shrub beans and covered them with mesh. I wasn't taking any chances.

[SlapstickGenius]

Kudzu can be made into sweets. There’s Kuzumochi, a Japanese sweet made out of the plant.

[DarthVidor]

Kudzu please keep these fabulous videos coming? Thank you, have a nice day.

[Kiraiko]

I grew up in AL and it would cover EVERYTHING if you let it, I remember entire fields and hillsides and old buildings being covered in it. They've been fighting back against it a lot more since I was a kid but it's still a problem.

[MastaBroshiX]

Uncle jimbob was a great man until he did it for the vine, he hasn't been seen in years 😭

[Rainkit]

I live in Missouri and even though the winters get too cold for it to fully take over, you can still find kudzu near major cities. This plant is a nightmare. Its difficult to control and even harder to kill. Kudzu and Japanese honeysuckle both take the crown as the worst invasives in this state due to how hard it is to eliminate them. To the point where i am in awe when i visit a state park that doesn't have either of those plants, because I know how much work that little detail implies.

[Chichi-slmq]

Tasha the Amazon is my favourite Animalogic presenter. She is so quirky. Honestly you are the coolest teacher on Youtube.

[agerven]

Oh no, Kudzu. Not only it could, but it can and surely will!
When we bought our first house, a very very very fine house, with two cats in the yard and a shed in the garden, we found the shed to be covered in ivy, or so we thought.
But no, it was mighty Kudzu, blocking the entrance through the door, shading the windows and whatnot. First we hacked and cut and sawed the door free, so it could be seen and opened. Then we found the Kudzu had completely demolished and torn apart the roof.
So we spent some nice weekends freeing the shed from all that stuff, which was mostly a very rewarding task. After having the roof repaired, we kept watch for the slightest sign of new Kudzu growing.
This plant is probably the single good reason to own a machete in the Netherlands.

[aisadal]

I remember reading about the kudzu plant when I took the SATs. Loved reading about it story, and culinary uses! 🥰

[bobmorgan]

In North Carolina, we pronounce the plant’s names as “kudd-zoo” as opposed to “could-zoo”, the way Tasha said it. I grew up with the plant as part of the backdrop in my rural town, but I was surprised to find out this defining feature of the southern landscape wasn’t introduced until the twentieth century. I’ve seen the Japanese kudzu bug here as well, although I’ve heard it also attacks soybean crops.