kudzu vine

[ kood-zoo ]

noun

1. a fast-growing Chinese and Japanese climbing vine, Pueraria lobata, of the legume family, now widespread in the southern U.S., having tuberous, starchy roots and stems: used for fiber, as food and forage, and to prevent soil erosion.

Word History and Origins

Origin of kudzu vine¹

1900–05; < Japanese kuzu, earlier kudu, of uncertain origin

Example Sentences

It’s increasingly the political equivalent of the kudzu vine that overruns everything in its path.

From Salon

In the Mississippi River, it is Asian carp; in the Everglades, Burmese pythons; in the Great Lakes, Russian zebra mussels; in the South, Indochinese kudzu vine.

From Wall Street Journal

"All I've ever wanted / was to kiss crevices, pry them open, / and flourish within dew-slick / hollows," he explains, writing in the voice of a kudzu vine.

From Los Angeles Times

From the kudzu vine to the gypsy moth to the Burmese python surge in the Everglades, we often discover the impact of a species only when it’s too late.

From New York Times

Another major difference is that Eastern China is largely blessed with fertile, rainy climate which means that all manners of greenery run rampant; this is after all the region which gifted us with kudzu vine.

From Scientific American