Editing Kudzu (section)

===Americas===
{{See also|Kudzu in the United States}}

Kudzu is an infamous weed in the United States,<ref name="Finch" /> where it can be found in 32 states.<ref name="Crockett" /> It is common along roadsides and other disturbed areas throughout most of the southeast,<ref>{{cite web|title=SPECIES: Pueraria montana var. lobata|url=http://www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/plants/vine/puemonl/all.html|publisher=US Forest Service - United States Department of Agriculture|access-date=29 September 2015}}</ref> as far north as rural areas of [[Pulaski County, Illinois]]. The vine has become a sore point in [[Culture of the Southern United States|Southern US culture]]. Estimates of its rate of spreading differ wildly; it has been described as spreading at the rate of {{convert|150000|acre|km2|abbr=on}} annually,<ref name="scidai">{{cite web| url= https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/07/090719185107.htm | title=Controlling Kudzu With Naturally Occurring Fungus | website=[[ScienceDaily]] | date=20 July 2009 | access-date=2009-07-20}}</ref> although in 2015 the [[United States Forest Service]] estimated the rate to be only {{convert|2,500|acre|km2|abbr=on}} per year.<ref name="Finch">{{cite magazine|author=Bill Finch|title=Legend of the Green Monster|magazine=Smithsonian Magazine|volume= 46|number= 5|date=September 2015|page=19|url=http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/true-story-kudzu-vine-ate-south-180956325/}}</ref>

A small patch of kudzu was discovered in 2009 in [[Leamington, Ontario]], the second-warmest growing region of Canada after south coastal British Columbia.<ref>{{cite web |date=27 September 2009 |title=Kudzu: Invasion of the killer vines or a tempest in a teapot? |url=http://ckdp.ca/kudzu-invasion-of-the-killer-vines-or-a-tempest-in-a-teapot/ |access-date=2010-04-20 |publisher=Chatham-Kent Daily Post}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Wingrove |first=Josh |date=24 September 2009 |title='Vine that ate the South' has landed in the Great White North |newspaper=The Globe and Mail |url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/vine-that-ate-the-south-has-landed-in-the-great-white-north/article4287178/ |access-date=14 October 2013}}</ref>[[File:Photograph of dairy cows grazing on kudzu on the farm of G.A. Herford, Columbia County, Georgia, 1952-1957? - DPLA - b3294bc96a065665a0517370b52f8a6a.jpg|thumb|Dairy cows grazing on kudzu in [[Columbia County, Georgia]], {{Circa|1950s}}]]

Kudzu was introduced from Japan into the United States at the Japanese pavilion in the 1876 [[Centennial Exposition]] in Philadelphia.<ref name="stewart" /> It was also shown at the [[World's Columbian Exposition|Chicago World's Fair]].<ref name="Crockett">{{Cite web |last=Crockett Peters |first=Clinton |date=2017-08-29 |title=The Miracle Vine |url=https://www.theawl.com/2017/08/kudzu-the-miracle-vine/ |access-date=2022-05-03 |website=The Awl |language=en}}</ref> It remained a garden plant until the [[Dust Bowl]] era (1930s–1940s), when the vine was marketed as a way for farmers to stop [[soil erosion]]. The new [[Natural Resources Conservation Service|Soil Conservation Service]] grew seventy million kudzu seedlings and paid $8 an acre ({{Inflation|US|8|1940|fmt=eq}}) to anyone who would sow the vine. Road and rail builders planted kudzu to stabilize steep slopes. Farmer and journalist Channing Cope, dubbed "kudzu kid" in a 1949 [[Time (magazine)|''Time'']] profile, popularised it in the South as a fix for eroded soils. He started the Kudzu Club of America, which, by 1943, had 20,000 members. The club aimed to plant {{convert|8|e6acre|km2}} across the South.<ref name="Finch" /> Cultivation peaked at over {{convert|1000000|acre|km2|abbr=on|spell=in}} by 1945.<ref>Kudzu: The Vine that Ate the South; PorterBriggs.com http://porterbriggs.com/the-vine-that-ate-the-south/ {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140608025052/http://porterbriggs.com/the-vine-that-ate-the-south/ |date=8 June 2014 }}</ref> Once Soil Service payments ended, much of the kudzu was destroyed as farmers turned the land over to more profitable uses. The Soil Conservation Service stopped promoting kudzu altogether by the 1950s.<ref name="Finch" /> [[File:La Habana, plantas (1983) 03.jpg|thumb|Almendares Park in [[Havana]], 1983]]

Kudzu's ongoing mythos as a mile-a-minute invader is likely due to its visibility coating trees at wooded roadsides, thriving in the sunshine at the forest edge. Despite kudzu's notoriety, [[Privet as an invasive plant|Asian privet]] and invasive [[rose]]s have each proved to be greater threats in the United States.<ref name="Finch" />