North Coast plantations: Kudzu
The western Carolinas are badly afflicted by kudzu , a leafy climbing vine introduced from Japan in 1876 for decoration and shade. Its use was encouraged by the federal government from the 1930s to stop soil erosion. Unbelievably, it can grow as much as a foot a day in hot weather, and eventually kills trees by cutting off the sunlight. So far, it has covered about two million acres of forest. In places it's amazing, totally carpeting whole stands of trees and telegraph poles and wires. South Carolina folk poet James Dickey's poem Kudzu portrays it as a mysterious, evil invader from the east:
In Georgia, the legend says
that you must close your windows
at night to keep it out of the house
the glass is tinged with green, even so …
Copyright Rough Guides Ltd as trustee for its authors. Published by Rough Guides. All rights reserved. The Rough Guides name is a trademark of Rough Guides Ltd.
Copyright © 2006 United States.biz
