Following Nature in South Carolina

The Great Grape-Colored Vine You know it's Spring in SC when you see Wisteria in bloom! Chinese and Japanese Wisteria Distribution Map    State of Indiana Cooperative Invasives Management        While SC does see both American and Kentucky Wisteria bloom, most of the visible Wisteria is of the Chinese or Japanese variety. Like the previously discussed invasive vine, Kudzu, the Wisteria vine came from Asia in the early 1800s, touted for its ornamental purposes. Notice how both Kudzu and Wisteria have spread into many of the same areas in the United States, as shown on the map. And much like Kudzu, its rapid growth was unpredicted and therefore unmanaged. The result? Wisteria vines have been known to create canopies over forests (shading plants meant to grow in the sun), choke and break tree limbs, and even completely overtake smaller trees . Native vs. Non-Native Aren't they all just purple flowers?        American Wisteria (pictured lef...

A Common Sight What's all that green stuff over there?        It sprawls alongside highways. It carpets entire swaths of forestry. It's everywhere, and it's important enough that in my third-grade South Carolina musical, we sang an entire song about it. It's Kudzu.       What began as a decorative plant native to Asia has ended in the harmful consumption of much of the American Southeast's natural environment: Kudzu is a vine that, "[o] nce established, [...] grows at a rate of one foot per day..." according to The Nature Conservancy . This quality has naturally lent itself to a fast and far spread, depicted in the graphic below, but it begs the question: How exactly did kudzu go from being an exotic porch plant to an invasive species?  https://www.aces.edu/blog/topics/forestry-wildlife/the-history-and-use-of-kudzu-in-the-southeastern-united-states/ Kudzu in America How did it get here?        The Forestry and Wildlife section...