As a young naturalist growing up in the Deep South, I feared kudzu. I’d walk an extra mile to avoid patches of it and the writhing knots of snakes that everyone said were breeding within.

Kudzu, a Japanese vine originally brought to North Carolina in the late 1800s, is an invasive species that spreads rapidly, taking over resources that other plants need to survive. It can cause ...

Over the past century, kudzu (rhymes with "mud zoo") has become a mythic feature of the Southern landscape. The vine and its overlapping, plate-size leaves shroud buildings, trees, billboards ...

To the shaded hole from the blistering sun, And you may have seen the swallow’s flight And the shooting star in the deep, dark night; But until you have watched the kudzu grow You never have ...