The mile-a-minute plant: could the ultimate unwanted heirloom plant develop into a million-dollar crop?

James Dickey's wonderful poem "Kudzu" declares: "In Georgia, the legend says that you must close your windows at night to keep it out of the house." This may be true in Mississippi, too. Kudzu, sometimes called the "mile-a-minute plant" or "foot-a-night vine," actually grows almost that fast--up to a foot a day and 100 feet a year.

Driving around the state during the growing season, it's hard to miss the land carpeted with thick layers of green kudzu. Buildings have been totally devoured. Hills are rounded by layers of vines. Poles are bent by their weight.

Kudzu covers an estimated 7 million acres in the United States. South Mississippi alone has 546,000 acres of infested privately owned forestland, causing a loss of $1.62 billion in potential timber sales over the past 30 years. It is in 72 of our 82 counties. According to the Mississippi Kudzu Coalition, made up of 12 agencies focused on reducing kudzu acreage, Mississippi loses $54 million annually to kudzu.

Questions about kudzu often have interesting answers:

Where did kudzu come from, and how did it get to Mississippi?

The sweet-scented, purple-flowered plant was shown at in a Japanese exhibit at the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Not realizing its invasive tendency, gardeners all across the eastern United States soon began using the plant for ornamental gardens.

In the 1920s, kudzu was sold as forage after it was found that animals would eat it. In the 1930s, the Soil Conservation Service began promoting kudzu for erosion control. The Civilian Conservation Corps paid farmers to plant kudzu during the Great Depression, and farmers planted many acres in Mississippi. Finally, during the 1960s, the emphasis turned to eradication instead of propagation, and in 1972, the U.S. Department of Agriculture listed kudzu as a common weed in the South.

Does kudzu have any beneficial uses?

Surprisingly, yes. Kudzu is still used as forage. When Tuskegee University researchers raised goats in fields of kudzu, the goats not only thrived and produced profitable milk and wool but also kept the kudzu from spreading.

The plant's roots and flowers have been used for 2,000 years in Japan and China to help reduce the desire for alcohol, but only in recent years has kudzu been used to combat alcoholism in the United States. Other medicinal uses include help for a long list of ailments including colds, flu, measles, bad breath, headaches, diabetes, and internal bleeding, according to alternative medicine expert Pamela Nations-Weissman.

The leaves and stems are edible, and there are wonderful-sounding recipes available online for everything from jelly and tea to quiche and fried chicken, all made using parts of the kudzu vine. In some areas, kudzu is even used in salads.

How and when is kudzu harvested?

The best time for picking is in the spring and early summer; however, young leaves may be picked throughout the growing season. Just be careful of snakes, which love to hide in the vines, and be sure not to pick poison ivy or poison oak, which have the same three-leaf arrangement. Allow the leaves to dry naturally. When dried, the leaves can be crumbled and used to make tea or stored in an airtight container.

Why has kudzu become so widespread a nuisance?

Kudzu has no natural insect predators, and the climate in the Southeast is ideal for growth. The roots are thick and store water, making the plant drought-tolerant. Only the vines are harmed by frost. Birds and mammals disperse many of the seeds.

Controlling kudzu is difficult and expensive, costing between $250 and $300 an acre over a three- to four-year period. James Miller of the U.S. Forest Service in Auburn, Alabama, calls kudzu a "biological wildfire." The older a kudzu patch is, the longer it will take to completely eradicate the plant. Every root must be killed; if even one is left alive, the kudzu will come back and cover the land again. If a patch is completely removed, pine trees can be planted six months after the last treatment.

Kudzu has taken over much of the land in the Vicksburg National Military Park. According to Kurt Foote, the park's natural resource program manager, a long-term effort is underway to conquer the kudzu using a combination of cutting and spraying. On small patches, park employees find the "mother stem" from which all the vines originate, cut it close to the ground, and spray the exposed tissue. If the infestation is over an acre, a foliar spray of herbicide is used. Foote expects control efforts at the park to be carried out indefinitely.

Decide for yourself whether kudzu is an invasive weed or a vine worthy of harvesting for forage, food, or medicine. If enough uses for the plant are found, Mississippi could stand to make millions from our crop. Maybe we could even change our motto to the "Kudzu State."