Comments on: Another Reason to Not Like Kudzu (Unless It's Good for Making Biofuel)

By: Gustavo Vargas

Gustavo Vargas — Thu, 24 Apr 2014 19:13:00 +0000

Tina, would you care to let me know the source or scientific reference of the Georgia’s research team? Although I found some of your information misleading, I’m not pretending to advocate for kudzu but for properly informing people; I am a plant physiologist and I do not know of plants directly producing nitric oxides in big amounts (which are almost produced exclusively during human-made fuels’ combustion), except for those plants associated to nitrogen fixing soil microorganisms, like legumes. Kudzu is in fact a legume, but surely gives more good nitrogen to the soil than the bad nitrogen oxides dumped to the atmosphere. In other hand, isoprene is not considered a pollutant and it is a normal byproduct of green plants. The problem is when isoprene gets in contact to NOx and generates tropospheric ozone, the same thing food-beans could lead to. Actually, under low levels of NOx it has the opposite benefical effect. In other hand, isoprene emissions by plants appear to be higher under higher temperatures as well as photosynthesis and hence, growing. Therefore, combusting fossil fuels leading to higher levels of NOx and higher atmospheric temperatures are likely a problem linked to Kudzu, but in a very different way you did mention.

By: Tina Casey

Tina Casey — Fri, 28 May 2010 03:35:32 +0000

Yikes! Thanks for your comment but I was lucky enough to spend a few months in New Zealand a while back (shout-out to the boys of the OTC!) and the first thing I learned was that they already have enough problems with gorse, another non-native invader. Imagine kudzu with spikes…

By: Laurent J. MASSON

Laurent J. MASSON — Thu, 27 May 2010 12:58:17 +0000

Invasive species are the problem. Men can move freely around the world, that is not supposed to be the case with plants. Nearly each time a plant is brought to a continent where it wasn’t, there are problems with native species.

Hopefully, not many companies make biofuels out of kudzu. Switching to some other plant might not be at huge cost. But is there an authority to tell them not to grow kudzu anymore?

By: Frank DeFreytas

Frank DeFreytas — Wed, 26 May 2010 16:47:57 +0000

Not to be flip, but could kudzu be grown in New Zealand where there is a very large hole in the ozone layer. Far fetched?

Poor kudzu, too good to be true