I’ll leave this here, as I’m particularly bothered by the weird megamyth of kudzu in the US, as is evidenced but the other comments.
English ivy is actually a generally bigger threat but it never gets any real attention.
I will concede that the image above is kudzu tho.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/true-story-kudzu-vine-ate-south-180956325/
Apart from what others commented on these being two entirely different species, there might be other factors at play as well.
Lianas and vines are pretty common and very diverse, especially in tropical forests. They are usually found as part of the upper canopy and if there is a tree fall, they manage to fill this gap pretty quickly. The trees grow more slowly, but will manage to establish themselves eventually, filling up that gap. But if you cut down an entire forest, trees have a much harder time to establish themselves because the whole ground is just covered in these fast growing lianas or vines. There are studies that look at exactly that, how lianas inhibit forest regrowth.
So, how overgrown with lianas or vines a certain habitat is, is very much dependent on the disturbance of this habitat.
Playing whack a mole with my neighbours ivy. Keeps popping up on my side of the fence. Fuck whoever brought it to Australia.
I’m playing whack a mole with my own ivy. Fuck the prior house owners for letting it get out of hand. I got all of it from the trees and the side of the house but it always grows back. I’m still finding sprouts from thick woody vines that have been there forever apparently. I tried removing it from the fence but realized very quickly that it’s the only thing holding it together. 😒
And fuck the English for bringing it over (we both know it was them, even their plants are colonizers).
Same. I have a fence that’s barely still standing now that I removed the ivy. I’ve been pulling it and spraying it for several years now. I know I’ll never win, but I’m doing my best to keep it in check. The most painful part is when I go to garden centers and see it for sale. It makes me want to cry.
The most painful part is when I go to garden centers and see it for sale.
“Buy it for life!”
notlikethat.jpg
I think the vines in the second photo are kudzu tho
Nah it’s pretty intent on covering the whole of England too tbh. Good for the bees in September tho ☺️
Near rivers it has to contend with Himalayan Balsam, and the bees love that stuff too.
Yeah I quite like the ol’ Himalayan balsam to be honest - very popular with the bumble bees. Gets a bad rap in the uk because it’s supposedly ‘invasive’, but I take rather a dim view of that kind of talk to be sure.
They do destroy biodiversity but at least they are pretty and won’t fuck you up like Giant Hogweed.
Kudzu is Chinese arrowroot tho?
Scienceuninformed memes