Our website reports on Kudzu Coalition work to eliminate or control kudzu without using chemicals. Sometimes our research on kudzu leads us to historical information about kudzu. Here are links to some of these web pages.
Websites or documents about other miscellaneous kudzu topics are listed elsewhere on this website.
North Carolina Public Radio, WUNC, broadcast a 48 minute program on kudzu July 2004 as part of their series "The State of Things". It is a wonderful introduction to kudzu, covering a wide range of topics: Music, humor, cooking, crafts, forestry, farming, and so on.
This article provides a detailed historical review of kudzu as of 1973. The footnotes may be particularly helpful for researchers and natural history buffs. The article is published in its entirety with permission from "Southeastern Geographer" magazine at the suggestion of Coalition volunteer Dr. Gillian Newberry.
Dr. Derek H. Alderman, Assistant Professor of Geography at East Carolina University, wrote an update to a previous article that was published in a 2001 issue of "Southern Cultures". It is reproduced with permission of the Southeastern Division of the Association of American Geographers and with thanks to Derek Alderman.
First published in October 1943, the U.S. Department of Agriculture printed "Kudzu as a Farm Crop" as Farmer's Bulletin No. 1923. A revised version was published in December 1948, and is the above link. Thanks to ATTRA for providing a copy of this bulletin.
The Coalition knows of at least one farm that still harvests kudzu, a dairy farm run by Henry and Edith Edwards.
The company Ivan Munroe ("Pioneer Kudzu Planter") issued a brochure extolling the virtues of kudzu for farmers, their customers. Unfortunately, no date is provided. Thanks to Jack Todd at the South Carolina School for the Deaf and the Blind for saving a copy of this historic gem.
"Compass" is a quarterly publication of the USDA Forest Service Southern Research Station. Here is an article that they published in their Spring 2005 issue, reproduced with their permission. It focuses on kudzu as an invasive plant, and the consequent costs. Thanks to Claire Payne: A link to a pure text version of the article is found at the top of the page that contains the color print version.
What is an invasive plant? Where do they come from? This essay written for Natural Areas Journal by Mary Morrison of Sumter National Forest answers these questions, and provides links for more information.
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