This plant — mostly unwelcome and frequently classified as a “noxious weed” — can be found throughout large portions of North America. When you can identify it, please leave a comment with the plant’s common name, scientific name and any personal experiences you may have had with it.
New leaves
Spreading along ground
Spreading upwards
Developing flowers (Compare variations in leaf shape with previous photos.)
Flower (fragrant)
Seed pod
ANSWER (subsequently added to this post to facilitate the “search” function for these images): Kudzu (Pueraria montana)
Kudzu: Pueraria montana var. lobata
Good for erosion control!
Yes, this is kudzu (Pueraria montana). Although I have not personally eaten this plant (to date), I know other people have. And goats love to eat it!
With the leaf shape and configuration being so similar what is the best way to tell if a plant is poison ivy or kudzu? I live in Houston, Texas and the house I’ve moved into has one of these vines growing all over the back and parts of the trees. I do not have a reaction to poison ivy but my fiancé will not help me remove the vines until we are sure what they are. I have been trying to find answers via google searching but have not found anything conclusive. Either way its bad news, I just want to know what I’m dealing with.
To my eyes, Aeryn, these plants look quite different, although I can see the similarities now that you brought my attention to considering the two plants together. Kudzu leaves are much larger than Poison ivy leaves — as much as twice the size. The Kudzu leaf also has what I consider to be a more rounded look to its lobes on the leaflets. The Poison ivy leaves are more pointed and they don’t have lobes the way Kudzu does. Poison ivy leaflet margins have sharp points.
You may want to open a separate browser window for the blog post which compares Poison ivy and Virginia creeper. That way you can compare the images of the plants side-by-side (from tab to tab). http://identifythatplant.com/poison-ivy-looks-similar-to-virginia-creeper/
Some of the leaves on the vines get as big as my hand but some their leaves are rather pointy while others are slightly more rounded and they have lots of “hairy” climbing roots that grow out of the vines. I guess I will just wait until they flower… I just didn’t want to give it more time to grow up my walls than I had to but that’s ok. At least its a pretty vine. Thanks for your quick response.