Kudzu, the great scourge

  ROCKY BOTTOM, S.C. - I'm still discovering the extent of the spread of this vine introduced from Japan in the 20th century.
   Kudzu is everywhere in the Southeast, and can take over fields, poles, trees and even trailers, as seen in the accompanying photo. So far there has been no good method developed to control its growth. It was officially listed as a weed nearly 40 years ago.

  Used as far back as the 1930s for erosion control in the U.S., kudzu now covers about 7 million acres in the Southeast and spreads more than 100,000 acres per year.