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Pueraria lobata (Willd.) Ohwi
Fabaceae
Kudzu, Japanese arrowroot
Source: James A. Duke. 1983. Handbook of Energy Crops. unpublished.
- Uses
- Folk Medicine
- Chemistry
- Description
- Germplasm
- Distribution
- Ecology
- Cultivation
- Harvesting
- Yields and Economics
- Energy
- Biotic Factors
Kudzu is primarily, grown for pasture, hay, and silage. It is palatable to all
types of livestock. Kudzu is nearly equal to alfalfa in nutritive value.
Leaves, shoots and roots are eaten by some humans. Useful fiber is obtained
from stems, and starch is obtained from the tuberous root (roots up to 35 kg
each). In China and Japan Ko-fen flour, made from the roots, is used in soups.
Said to be cultivated for its tuber in the uplands of New Guinea and New
Caledonia. Used for erosion control and soil improvement on banks, slopes and
gullies where a permanent planting is desired. It is used as shade, planted
around buildings.
Chinese reportedly use the plants as a diaphoretic and febrifuge, the root
decoction for colds, dysentery and fever. The root starch is official in the
Japanese pharmacopoeia. Shoots are used as a lactagogue.
Raw roots (per 100 g edible portion) contain 113 calories, 68.6 percent
moisture, 2.1 g protein, 0.1 g fat, 27.8 total carbohydrate, 0.7 g fiber, 1.4 g
ash, 15 mg Ca, 18 mg P, and 0.6 mg Fe. Starch of roots contains (per 100 g)
340 calories, 16.5 percent moisture, 0.2 g protein, 0.1 g fat, 83.1 g total
carbohydrate, 0.1 g ash, 35 mg Ca, 18 mg P, 2.0 mg Fe, and 2 mg, Na. Cooked
leaves contain (per 100 g) 36 calories, 89.0 percent moisture, 0.4 g protein,
0.1 g fat, 9.7 g total carbohydrate. 7.7 g fiber, 0.8 fat, 34 mg Ca, 20 mg P,
4.9 mg Fe, 0.03 mg thiamin, 0.91 mg riboflavin, 0.8 mg niacin. Feeding trials
on goats indicated that kudzu hay (protein, 10.3; total dig. nutrients, 28.7;
and starch equivalent, 16.1 kg 100 kg) compared well with cowpea bay, berseem
hay and wheat bran in digestible protein value, but was inferior to legume hays
in starch equivalent.
Perennial coarse herbs with woody base; stems elongated, up to 20 m long,
twining or prostrate, whitish-puberulent with coarse spreading or reflexed
brown hispid hairs; stipules lanceolate, subacute, medifixed,l 1520 m long,
green; leaves trifoliolate, the leaflets green, loosely appressed, hirsute on
upper surface, densely whitish-puberulent beneath., terminal lobe
rhombic-orbicular, 1015 cm long and as wide, abruptly acuminate, sometimes
3-lobed, lateral lobes often bifid; racemes densely many-flowered, nearly
sessile or short-peduncled, 1020 cm long; flowers reddish-purple, rarely
almost white, 1820 m long, fragrant, bracts linear, 810 mm long, 0.20.3 mm
wide, long-pilose, caducous, bracteoles caducous, narrowly ovate or broadly
lanceolate, acute; lowest calyx-lobe 1.52 times as long as the tube; pods
flat, densely, dark brown, spreading-hispid, linear, 68 cm long, 810 mm wide.
Fl. JulySep.; seed maturing before frost, rarely setting seed northward. Seed
small, about 100,000/kg.
Few cvs have been developed, and 'Kudze 23' is the only cv developed which
produces more crowns than comon; its finer leaves and stems make it especially
valuable as forage. Most strains grow 35 m or more in a single season.
Assigned to the Indochina-Indonesia and China-Japan Centers of Diversity, kudzu
or cvs thereof is reported to exhibit tolerance to drought, frost, grazing,
heavy soil, slope, vines and weeds. (2n = 24)
Native to Japan and the Orient, areas of Eastern Asia; rarely cultivated in
Java. More widely cultivated in southeastern United States, being best adapted
south of Virginia and Kentucky, west to Oklahoma and Texas although it will
grow as far north as New York and Lincoln, Nebraska.
A warm weather plant, growing from early spring until late fall. Above-ground
parts killed by frost. Deep-freezing kills the entire plant. Grows on a wide
range of soil types, but does not make good growth on very light poor sand or
on poorly drained heavy clay. Cannot stand waterlogging on any soil. Grows
best on well-drained loam soil of good fertility. On soils of low fertility,
liberal use of manure and light application of superphosphate when plant is
first cut is beneficial. Sometimes soil needs a complete fertilizer, other
times lack of boron is a limiting factor (Use borax at rate of 30 kg/ha).
Kudzu is deep-rooted, therefore drought-resistant. However, it does not do
well in the tropics and dies out very quickly. Ranging from Warm Temperate
Moist through Subtropical Moist Forest Life Zone., kudzu is reported to
tolerate annual precipitation of 9.7 to 21.4 dm (mean of 15 cases = 13.5),
annual mean temperature of 12.2 to 26.7°C (mean of 15 cases = 18.1°C),
and pH of 5.0 to 7.1 (mean of 13 cases = 6.1).
Kudzu is propagated from seed, cuttings or crowns. Plants are usually started
by rooting runners at the nodes, and transplanting 2-year old plants. Plants
can be started from both softwood and hardwood cuttings, but need special
conditions and care, (greenhouse misting; this method rarely used). The very
hard seed coats should be scarified with acid or by mechanical means before
planting to insure higher germination; even then, 70 percent germination is
considered excellent. Seed sown very thick when planting. Usually not much
seed is set, and then, only on parts of the plant that have climbed up on a
support. If allowed, kudzu will climb up and over trees eventually smothering
them out. Seed planted in a nursery in well-drained soil of good structure, in
rows 1 m apart, planting 1525 seed/20 cm of row, 0.61.3 cm deep when soil is
warm, depending on the locality, in early or late spring. Seedlings require
about 4 months to develop 46 true leaves and one or more roots 1.3 cm in
diameter and 15 cm long. At this stage they are ready to transplant to field
about the time of first fall frost. Where seed is plentiful, it may be
direct-seeded in the field., allowing 1 kg/ha, with 1012 seeds per 30 cm in
rows 2 m apart. Fertilizer is applied at planting time. New stands must be
cultivated and kept free of weeds the first year. Kudzu in the cotyledonous
stage will withstand temperatures down to -7°C. It loses this tolerance to
cold as the third and fourth leaves develop. Plants should be inoculated with
the right strain of bacteria to insure maximum production. Important to
protect plants from drying during planting and to tamp moist, well-propared
soil about them to prevent drying after planting. Holes should be deep enough
for roots to be spread out to full length. Crown buds should be level with
ground surface and very lightly covered with soil. Short-cuts in planting
usually result in poor stands. On ordinary good land, kudzu will grow enough
in one year to extend 14 m. When field is to be used for hay or grazing,
spacing is not as important, as when the field is to be regularly planted or
rotated to another crop. Spacing varies from 310 m between rows and 1.33.3 m
apart in rows, usually requiring about 1,250 plants per hectare. Established
stands used for grazing or hay should receive 400600 kg/ha superphosphate
every second or third year, or 10 tons of good stable manure or mixture of
smaller amounts of manure and a mineral fertilizer.
Harvested in several ways, depending on usuage. Kudzu gives in 23 years a
good ground cover which is long-lived if not overgrazed or mowed too often.
Hay: Makes a good coarse hay, retaining its leaves after cutting, does
not shed an appreciable amount of leaves during growing season, is palatable to
all kinds of livestock, and can be fed with very little waste. Kudzu with its
heavy viny growth is difficult to cut, particularly the first time, because the
vines catch on the divider board of an ordinary mower; modified mowers have
been developed. Hay should be harvested when vines and ground are dry. Leave
hay in swath for several hours before windrowing. Following morning when dew
is off, cut plants should be put in small stacks or the windrow turned, and in
the afternoon it should be put in the barn or baled. Stacks are capped with a
waterproof cover, e.g. canvas. Pasture: Kudzu makes good pasture,
steers gaining more than 1/2 kg/day, averaging 107.5 kg season. Kudzu can be
pastured from late spring until frost or even later. It is especially valuable
as a reserve feed for periods of drought. Do not graze plants until third
year. If growth is vigorous, it may be grazed lightly the second year. For
maximum production, pasture should be divided into 2 or more plots and grazed
alternately or in rotation. In fall, rye, oats, or a winter legume (crimson
clover, burclover, or vetch) should be seeded in the kudzu pasture to prevent
loss of plant food by leaching and to supply pasture before kudzu growth starts
in spring. Livestock should be taken from pasture before growth starts in
spring. If pastured continuously, plants should not be grazed closer than
3045 cm. If alternate or rotation grazing is practiced, plants can be grazed
to 1525 cm. Good silage can be made of kudzu by mixing it with grass, the
mixture containing about 60 percent moisture. Total moisture content of kudzu
at time of cutting is about 75%, so kudzu must be handled rapidly to prevent
drying out too much. Cattle readily eat good silage.
Forage yield of 5 MT/ha are expected from good stands on fertile soils. About
25,000 plants or crowns can be harvested from an ordinary well-established
plantation of 1 hectare. Under ideal conditions, twice that number. Planting
stock should be left in the field until needed. However, if large numbers of
plants are being handled for commercial sale, and it is necessary to dig them
before the planting season, they should be stored in a cool well-ventilated
place, and should be heeled-in in moist sphagnum moss or in soil with ample but
not too much moisture.
Several have suggested that the best way to get rid of a weed is to eat it, or
use it in some other destructive fashion. The biomass of the kudzu could be
converted into ethanol or beef and manure by patient entrepreneurs. Planted in
empty oil barrels, the kudzu (like the grape vine) has been suggested as an
energy-saving cooler, the canopy of leaves of kudzu lowering temperatures of
shaded areas by 10deg. or more. The tropical species, producing year round,
yields 020 MT/ha/yr with yields as low as 1 MT reported in Australia and
Colombia, 7 in Taiwan, and 20 in Cuba.
Velvetbean caterpillars (Anticarsia germatilis) eats the leaves and
root-knot nematodes (Meloidogyne sp.) attack the roots. Kudzu is said
to be cross pollinated and bees are the reported pollinators. Kudzu is
attacked by several fungi: Alternaria sp. (leaf-spot), Colletotrichum
lindemuthianum (anthracnose), Fusarium sp. (stem rot),
Macrophomina phaseoli (charcoal rot), Mycosphaerella puericola
(angular leaf-spot), Pellicularia solani (damping-off). It is also
attacked by the bacteria Pseudomonas phaseolicola and Ps. syringae
(bacterial blight and halo blight).
Complete list of references for Duke, Handbook of Energy Crops
Last update Thursday, January 8, 1998 by aw