KUDZU PLANT CREEPS IT'S WAY INTO CANADA

The plant that ate the south is in Leamington

Posted By Mark Ribble

Posted 4 months ago

Leamington has once again been put on the map on a national level.

The plant referred to as “the vine that ate the south”, has appeared here for the first time.

The kudzu vine is a large green vine that spreads quickly and has been known to grow up to one foot per day in the southern U.S.

The kudzu (Pueraria Montana), is a native species of Asia, and first appeared at the Philadelphia Centennial Expo in 1876. It was originally intended to be a forage crop and an ornamental plant. With no known predators and perfect growing conditions, Kudzu proliferated the southeastern US and has recently been discovered in Pennsylvania, the Ohio Valley and now, for the first time ever in Canada, on our Erie shores.

“We have been watching the kudzu vine move toward Canada for some time now, with great apprehension. Our colleagues in the south have been fighting a tough battle with this invader, so we need to take immediate action in Ontario to stop kudzu in its tracks," says Rachel Gagnon, Coordinator of the O.I.P.C. (Ontario Invasive Plant Council), a collective of organizations collaborating to address the spread of alien invasive plants in Ontario.

The local plant is located on private property and experts are unsure of how it got there. Speculation ranges from seeds somehow making their way across the lake, to someone planting the vine, thinking it would look nice in a garden.

Regardless, it needs to go.

Several organizations are currently studying the Leamington vine to determine the best course of action.

The plant tends to wrap around native trees and other plants and basically suffocates them by weighing them down and denying them of sunlight. Control measures include hand cutting, mowing, controlled burns and herbicide. Grazing animals, such as goats and pigs have also been effective at containing the spread of the vine over the long term, but in this particular case, the animals would not have access to the vine because it is on the lakeshore.

Brent Ross, spokesperson for the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA), cautions that the kudzu is not a major threat to Ontario and that people need to understand that our cooler summer nights and cold winters do not provide the optimum growing conditions for the kudzu to spread like it has in the south.

“It can survive here, but it can’t thrive here”, Ross told the Post.

The plant has large green round-edged leaves, usually three to a group, and produces a pink flower. . It produces pea-like pods that contain up to 10 seeds. Kudzu may also be mistaken for common plants such as Wild Cucumber, Virginia Creeper, and members of the Morning Glory family.