The WORST Invasive Species Of All Time Is Headed To Canada. And There Is Nothing You Can Do About It…
Photo source: Emma Frances Logan
As a soil scientist I take interest in all things soil but from time to time I put on my plant science hat and begin looking into the crazy world of plants. Over the years I’ve slowly began to discover some of the craziest plants on the planet, some of which are simply down right scary! If you’re a video person be sure to watch my YouTube video on the Kudzu vine
One of these scary plants is the Kudzu vine and it’s headed to a Canadian backyard near you. Unfortunately from a anatomical perspective & natural characteristics of the vine I think it maybe downright impossible to stop the inevitable invasion from the south.
Kudzu vine has a pretty unbelievable history in North America but the future of kudzu vine in Canada should have everyone talking. The vine was initially introduced to North America at the first ever Philadelphia world fair in 1879. It was being advertised along side the inventions of ketchup, popcorn, root beer & Alexander Graham Bells Telephone. So needles to say it made a phenomenal entrance into society, being described as the next innovation in ground cover.
As a side note it was also described as a fantastic way to cover your porch. Which it most definitely did, along side most of the southern United States!
The initial purpose for the vine was limited to main livestock feed. This was due to its high protein content but also its aggressive growth patterns. The plant was not hugely popular in the beginning, nor was it planted in a capacity that would eventually over run North America.
The future use of the plant is what inevitably resulted in the coffin nail for many native species in many regions of the United States.
This brings us to 1935 – 1938 and the dust bowl. During this time the top soil was being torn from the surface of the earth. Top soil is one of the most nutrient dense and important portions of the entire profile for growing a string crops. With the dust bowl in the 1930s this valuable resource was being lost at a rapid rate.
One of the best ways to stabilize the soils profile is to add a cover crop that grows quickly and causes a matting effect of the top soil. Insert kudzu vine the new miracle crop that grows aggressively but also can be used to feed livestock in the future.
Not to much detail, let me know if the comments if you’d enjoy a creepy crawly video on exactly what caused. But in short poor soil management caused massive dust storms. In order to correct this ground cover was desperately needed & a fast growing fix was ideal.
Insert Kudzu vine, the supposed greatest ecological fix of the century. Kudzu vines unique ability to grow up to one foot a day in in length combined with its unique tap root it was the first choice. The United States government handed out kudzu seedlings at a rate of 85 Million to start out.
To top this off the government subsidized anyone willing to plant this seedlings with $19.75 USD per hectare. That’s nearly $300 dollars in today’s currency but during the Great Depression! When everyone was poor and having to wait in breadlines for food this was an amazing opportunity everyone seemingly jumped in on.
To put perspective on exactly how much money this was let’s look at the British Columbia tree planting program. Today a tree planter in B.C. gets around $15 dollars CDN or $10 USD an hour. The average tree planter can plant around 1700 trees within a shift. With that being said there is around 1200 trees in a hectare based on the BC government planting density. So by even today’s standard this price was a fiat and healthy wage.
With these incentives 1.2 Million hectares were planted by 1946. But surprisingly the nail in the coffin was actually the boll weevil (looks like an alien ant eater) that desimated cotton crops across the USA. This bug resulted in farmers abandoned their farms due to the land being nearly useless. This left tens of thousands of kudzu hectares unchecked. However, it’s important to note that it’s not just any old type of land mass. It’s agricultural land, which means it’s more likely to be invaded by invasive species. This is due to the simple fact that after years of being worked and mono crops there is very little natural vegetation present.
It took until 1953 for the United States to feel it was necessary to remove this plant as a suggested cover crop. In 1970 it was deemed a weed finally designated as a weed. And in 1997 it was labelled a federal noxious weed.
The label of a federal noxious weed is serious because this label means the plant can no longer be transported dead, alive, seed, whole plant or portions of within states, across state lines or into the country as a whole.
This weed currently occupies 3 million hectares of land, is gaining 150,000 hec annually, and cost $6 million annually to control. The destruction of this weed unbelievable. From the nearly 12 foot long tap roots destroying water mains to the heavy vines pulling down power poles.
To date this weed has been spotted in Leamington Ontario and even Nova Scotia. Due to it history and vigour it’s only a matter of time before it moved into the rest of Canada.
WHY does it spread so well.
- 13 Cm or 5 inches a day nearly 3 feet a week from one vine.
- Legume family and can fix atmospheric N up to 95% of the plants requirements = great in any soil
- 40 % of the plants biomass is the root – 12 feet or 3.6 meters long and weight 300 lbs. perfect in drought land
- Propagates from small bits of root. So a simple small chunk of root in a truck load of soil will cause a plant.
The current fixes for this plant include mowing or grazing the plant down to bare stems and then burning or apply a herbicide designed to harm the Kudzu vine. The issue is that this process must be repeated over and over for up to ten years in the entire region to ensure total destruction.
As a Canadian how can you help stop the spread? Well prevention comes down to three main steps:
- Don’t buy plants or seeds without researching
- Don’t walk off chiking trail paths
- Don’t transport soil
Unfortunately Kudzu vines is not the first and won’t be the last invasive plant species in Canada but if we focus on education and awareness we may be able to slow these plants down.