This invasive plant is swallowing the U.S. Choking ecosystems, releasing carbon from the soil...
http://www.treehugger.com/natural-sciences/invasive-plant-swallowing-us-rate-50000-baseball-fields-year.htmlIn the dictionary next to the definition of "invasive species", they could show a photo of kudzu. Nothing seems to stop it: Above you can see it growing over trees in Atlanta, Georgia. Since it was first introduced to the U.S. at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia in 1876, it has been swallowing the country from an epicenter in the South-East at the rate of about 50,000 baseball fields per year, occupying an estimated 3,000,000 hectares today. Kudzu can grow up to 60 feet per season, or about one foot per day.
Kudzu is extremely bad for the ecosystems that it invades because it smothers other plants and trees under a blanket of leaves, hogging all the sunlight and keeping other species in its shade. It can also survive in low nitrogen areas and during droughts, allowing it to out-compete native species that don't have those superpowers. The only other plants that can compete with kudzu are other invasive species, so that doesn't really help...
The great kudzu invasion all started out with a mistake: The Soil Erosion Service and Civilian Conservation Corp intentionally planted it to control soil erosion in the state of Pennsylvania. It was then used in the South East to to provide shade to homes, and as an ornamental species.
But as you can see in the map above, the result is more like a fast-growing cancer than anything else. How can you get rid of a plant that covers around a quarter of the country?
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http://www.treehugger.com/natural-sciences/invasive-plant-swallowing-us-rate-50000-baseball-fields-year.html
More at the link. Much, much more.
(Please resist the urge to take this places it shouldn't go, lest you get in trouble with the mods- for those who may remember. Not sure there are too many who remember those days left around here, but you have been warned)
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Kudzu’s root, flower, and leaf are used to make medicine. It has been used in Chinese medicine since at least 200 BC. As early as 600 AD, it was used to treat alcoholism.
Today, kudzu is used to treat alcoholism and to reduce symptoms of alcohol hangover, including headache, upset stomach, dizziness, and vomiting. Kudzu is also used for heart and circulatory problems, including high blood pressure, irregular heartbeat, and chest pain; for upper respiratory problems including sinus infections, the common cold, hay fever, flu, and swine flu; and for skin problems, including allergic skin rash, itchiness, and psoriasis.
Some people use kudzu for menopause symptoms, muscle pain, measles, dysentery, stomach pain (gastritis), fever, diarrhea, thirst, neck stiffness, and to promote sweating. Other oral uses include treatment of polio myelitis, encephalitis, migraine, deafness, diabetes, and traumatic injuries.
Health providers in China sometimes give puerarin, a chemical in kudzu, intravenously (by IV) to treat stroke due to a blood clot.
http://www.webmd.com/vitamins-supplements/ingredientmono-750-kudzu.aspx?activeingredientid=750&activeingredientname=kudzu
Eat chopped kudzu leaves raw in salad or cook them like spinach leaves. Saute kudzu leaves, bake them into quiches or deep-fry them. Cook kudzu roots like potatoes, or dry them and grind them into powder. Use kudzu root powder as a breading for fried foods or a thickener for sauces. Fry or steam kudzu shoots like snow peas. Incorporate kudzu blossoms into jelly, candy and wine. Make kudzu tea with kudzu leaves, mint and honey.
http://www.livestrong.com/article/474310-how-to-cook-eat-kudzu/
Kudzu Recipes
Kudzu leaves and tender vine tips may be boiled the same way you boil spinach and used in your favorite recipes. Recipes can be found in the “Kudzu Cookbook” and “The book of Kudzu.” Both can be brought up in “Google Books”
Mediterranean style:
Rice, pine nut, dill stuffed kudzu leaves “Dolmas/ dolmades” Normally done with grape leaves.
Note on preparing LARGE leaves: Many recipes ask you to blanche AND pickle the leaves. I have tried, one, the other and the combination. It all works. I prefer the pickled fresh version, it retains the colour of the leaves and the heartier consistency makes the rolls more durable.
(Some recipes instruct us to cook or steam the rolls again after stuffing and I found this step to be unnecessary)
Kuzukopita. Use any Spanakopita recipe, (can’t go wrong!!) I prefer to make little triangles, but some less time consuming recipes call for laying the phyllo in sheets in a baking pan and layering the filling like a lasagna; Still delicious, but no longer finger food.
Southern style:
Prepare like collard or mustard greens Here is Arun’s recipe: Kudzu leaf, medium-young leaves, Onion, Garlic, Oil, Butter, Vinegar, Bacon (veggie or snorky) Sugar, (brown, raw, earthy, funky or white)
Spices:
Black pepper, cracked, Cayenne pepper powder (optional), Bouillon or your favorite savory soup base, powdered or paste (nutritional yeast is an excellent option)
Deep fried kudzu leaves (put a ½” of oil in a pan and drop fresh kudzu leaves in a handful at a time, when the tiny boil bubbles disappear they are done! Fish them out and repeat!) Some recipes call for battering them, which works too, but is an extra step and only adds calories. Dehydrating them is the most nutritionally valuable option and they are DELICIOUS!
Euro/western
Quiche! Add chopped and steamed kudzu, and whatever else to your quiche
Pesto: Kudzu/Basil/Pine nut/olive oil, garlic, Parmesan; puree
Kudzu Salsa: 1 cup diced freshly boiled Kudzu stems 1 large tomato, diced 1 tablespoon minced red onion 1 teaspoon olive oil, 1?4 teaspoon salt 2 tablespoons honey 1 tablespoon cilantro 1 tablespoon lime juice
Kudzu Blossom Jelly: Spoon over cream cheese, or melt and serve over waffles and ice cream. The blossom liquid is gray until lemon juice is added. 4 cups Kudzu blossoms ?4 cups boiling water ?1 tablespoon lemon juice ?1 (1 3/4-ounce) package powered kudzu root,?5 cups sugar. (to add heat include spicy pepper flakes!)
Wash Kudzu blossoms with cold water, and place them in a large bowl. Pour 4 cups boiling water over blossoms, and refrigerate 8 hours or overnight. Pour blossoms and liquid through a colander into a Dutch oven, discarding blossoms. Add lemon juice and root powder; bring to a full rolling boil over high heat, stirring constantly until THICK and STICKY. Stir in sugar; return to a full rolling boil, and boil, stirring constantly, 1 minute. Remove from heat; skim off foam with a spoon. Quickly pour jelly into hot, sterilized jars, filling to 1/4 inch from top. Wipe jar rims. Cover at once with metal lids, and screw on bands. Process in boiling water bath 5 minutes. Cool on wire racks. YIELD: 6 half pints.
http://echorailton.com/kudzu-cookbook/
yum
And got to admit I do like the warm summer smells of that honey suckle.
Plus I have 4 O'clocks planted around the doorways of the house, such a powerful sweet scent.
I was a bit slow to realize that keeping things from growing was the primary gardening chore down here, after moving from a cool place where begging stuff to grow in the all too brief summer was necessary. So the first couple years, we got engulfed.by all sorts of creeping, stretching, reaching for the sky plants.
Had to reclaim 100 feet of backyard in just a couple years. 
[font color="navy" face="Verdana"]Ditto with the likes of dandelions, Asian carp, lion fish, and all other invasive plant and animal species that can be made useful.
After all, considering the rough times almost certainly ahead in terms of water for agriculture and general food supply, we should be working on recipes and other uses for weeds and invasive species.
Serious flashback. 
Here's a picture from my back porch of the stuff:
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The stuff is awful, but cattle love it. 
You are the second or third long-timer I have seen now. Glad to know I am not alone here. Sometimes I feel like a newbie around these parts. I've been here since day 1 or 2, but I disappear from time to time. Like kudzu though, I am always popping back up. 
I remember the old days. I miss the old days of DU. 
Me too.
Nostalgia! 
