Kudzu, a vine that can grow 6.5 feet a week, may finally be used for something other than annoying the heck out of people and covering acres of land.

I read over in treehugger.com that Kudzu could produce up to 270 gallons of ethanol per acre- do I hear a substitute for corn coming on? Although compared to other plant that 270 gallons isn’t that much, but it is easily as much as corn.

The downside of using the invasive Kudzu for fuel is that this unpredictable plant is almost impossible to harvest- and no one really wants to plant more of this. Domesticating it may be possible, but who knows- anything could go wrong.

To give you a perspective of this pesky plant, know that it can climb up to 98 feet high, and to killing the plant is relatively difficult given the speed of it’s growth.

Trees killed by Kudzu

To be fair, Kudzu has uses including erosion control and a few types of medicine. If we could control and harvest it, Kudzu may be more useful to us.

-Rika

Sources:

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/06/kudzu-biofuel-feedstock.php

Picture source: http://www.invasivespeciesinfo.gov/plants/kudzu_child.shtml