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Leguminosae
Common names
Kudzu.
Description
Spreading perennial vine; woody, strong, hairy, with many shoots
developing from the crown. Leaves trifoliate, leaflets ovate and angularly
lobed, 4 to 8 cm long, leathery, smooth or nearly so on upper surface,
densely covered with soft greyish hairs on the lower; the leaf stalk hairy.
Flower dull purple-red with yellow spot near the base, about 0.6 cm long,
in a pendant raceme. Seed pod thin, 5 to 7.5 cm long, about 0.6 cm wide,
covered with fairly stiff spreading brown hairs. Seed oval or oblong, about
0.3 cm long, dark, shiny (Hosaka and Ripperton, 1944).
Distribution
Native to East Asia, it is now widespread in the tropics.
Characteristics
Best adapted to a warm, moist climate but, because of the stored
plant food in the roots, can stand protracted drought when once established.
It grows from sea level to 900 m in Hawaii. Kudzu is a fast-growing plant
and produces long, prostrate branches which root at many of the joints
if the soil is moist and contact good. New plants are established in this
manner. In the southern United States it is grown for grazing and cut feed,
especially on poor eroded soils. It takes one year to establish. Quite
a useful forage, retaining its palatability throughout the growing season,
but new pasture legumes are likely to replace it for grazing purposes (Hosaka
and Ripperton, 1944).
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