Kudzu Nation

I was sad as we began our 1000-mile drive back to the Midwest this week, after two weeks of mild Florida weather. I knew that there would be no transition to ease back into my winter reality: single digit temperatures and dirty snow were waiting. As we wound our way northward, I noticed trees blanketed with thousands of shaggy brown tendrils, stretching from the highest canopy to the ground. The hairy stems reached out to one another at all levels, effectively encasing acres of forests. These were dormant kudzu vines, waiting for spring to resume their foot-a-day growth. Kudzu can survive zone 5 winters, but our growing season isn’t long enough to produce fruit and seeds. If our frigid winters prove inhospitable to this invasive menace, perhaps snow isn’t so disagreeable after all.