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Same with Kudzu, and apparently that's an unstoppable plant too
by voidUpdate 6mo ago
Same with Kudzu, and apparently that's an unstoppable plant too
- gessha 6mo agoUnstoppable until you acquire a bunch of goats.
- rkomorn 6mo agoBut what if your goats become unstoppable?
- ssm008 6mo agoApply wolves!
- nucleardog 6mo agoBut what if the wolves become unstoppable?
- Izkata 6mo agoWe turn them into dogs.
- u8080 6mo agoIf they became unstoppable, we'll need unstoppable humans! Wait~~
- Akasazh 6mo agoThen you have found the goat
- Asooka 6mo agoGoatherd's pie.
- throwup238 6mo agoYou start an unstoppable business cleaning up dams and freeways of brush.
- moron4hire 6mo agoI would say that it's more accurate to say that kudzu is not poisonous. I definitely would not say it tastes good. It's got that "green plant" taste that you get from just chomping on any ol' leaf you might find. I mean, if you're poor and starving you could maaaaaybe survive on Kudzu, but it will be rough, it's not very calorie dense, even for a leafy green. Goats won't even eat it unless there is literally nothing else to eat. This whole, "oh you, can eat kudzu!" thing is just crunchy-mom Instagram influencer bullshit.
- voidUpdate 6mo agoYou might want to tell the japanese and vietnamese that it doesn't taste good then, they seem to have been using it as food for quite a while now
- yorwba 6mo agoThe root, not the leaves.
- voidUpdate 6mo agoWell it's lucky I didn't say anything about the leaves then
- HelloMcFly 6mo agoKudzu's threat has been long overstated. It thrives especially near forest edgelands which are always visible on highways, so concern of prevalence was partially based on individual sampling error. In reality, its presence in southern forests is higher than desired but still not disastrous (~0.1% of southern forestland), which is a fraction of worse invasives: Japanese honeysuckle (4.4%) and Asian privet (1.4%).
- whicks 6mo agoGenuinely curious, source for this? > ~0.1% of southern forestland), which is a fraction of worse invasives: Japanese honeysuckle (4.4%) and Asian privet (1.4%). Sample size of 1 here (I know), but I've spent a meaningful portion of my life outdoors in the south and I have _never_ seen swaths of the landscape covered with Japanese Honeysuckle or Asian Privet like I have Kudzu. It absolutely dominates _everything_ in areas where it's present here (not surprising when it can grow up to a 1 foot (0.3 m) a day.) Not trying to say you're incorrect, just trying to get a better handle on this. The thought that there are more destructive invasive plants in the US south than Kudzu is kind of blowing my mind.
- HelloMcFly 6mo agoYou won't see swaths of honeysuckle or privet because it grows in the understory throughout the entire forest, choking out natives. Part of their destructive power is that they bloom earlier than most natives in spring, essentially stealing the available sunlight in those golden weeks before the overstory leafs out and reduces sunlight in the understory. I guarantee you that if you've spent a meaningful portion of your life outdoors in the south you have seen Japanese Honeysuckle at the least, it is everywhere. But it's not a dramatic/easily identifiable shower like kudzu. The data I'm citing is from my textbook for my Ohio Citizen Volunteer Naturalist program I did in the Fall semester, it cites the US Forest report but doesn't give a link. I think it's from this report [PDF warning]: https://www.srs.fs.usda.gov/pubs/gtr/gtr_srs178/gtr_srs178_397.pdf https://www.srs.fs.usda.gov/pubs/gtr/gtr_srs178/gtr_srs178_3... EDIT: Another good read (https://gardenrant.com/2023/10/kudzu-not-the-evil-creeper-we-thought-it-was.html#:~:text=In%20the%20latest%20careful%20sampling,200%20million%20acres%20of%20forest https://gardenrant.com/2023/10/kudzu-not-the-evil-creeper-we...) which links to a very popular article from the teens: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/true-story-kudzu-vine-ate-south-180956325/ https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/true-story-kud...