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Kudzu (var. lobata) — photo by Photo by Peggy Greb.

Wikimedia Commons — CC, credited & licensed per image

Fabaceae family

Kudzu (var. lobata) Pueraria montana var. lobata variety

Also known as: East Asian arrowroot

Kudzu (var. lobata) is an introduced perennial vine, found in Hawaii, the lower 48 states, and the Pacific Basin. It grows to 39 ft.

⚠ Invasive here — plant a native instead USDA + GBIF

Kudzu (var. lobata) is flagged invasive in the U.S. These natives fill a similar niche — same growth habit, bloom season, height, and region — so you keep the look and feed local wildlife instead of spreading a problem.

Symphyotrichum pratense

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Matched on growth habit · bloom months · mature height · shared U.S. range (USDA + GBIF) — a starting point, not a prescription.

Growing & care

USDA PLANTS · TRY

Conditions

Sources · Conditions

Cold hardiness (derived) — Hardiness

Hardiness: ≥ zone 6 derived from its U.S. range

Size & form

Sources · Size & form

TRY Plant Trait Database (CC BY 4.0) — Height · Foliage

USDA PLANTS — Lifespan

Height: 39 ft
Lifespan: Perennial
Foliage: Broadleaf

In the garden

Vine / climber layer — Sits in the vine of a layered food forest or polyculture.Open guide →

Chop-and-drop biomass — Soft, low-density wood is quick-growing and easy to cut back — coppice it and drop the trimmings in place as mulch.Open guide →

derived roles

Species characteristics from USDA PLANTS (public domain) + TRY (CC BY) — general guidance, not a guarantee for your exact site. Deer "browsing" is documented palatability, not a deer-proof claim.

Wildlife & pollinators

How pollinator value is scored →

❧ Caterpillar hosts ~4 caterpillar species

Pueraria supports ~4 caterpillar species.

Native butterfly & moth caterpillars are the base of the terrestrial food web — most songbirds rear their young almost entirely on them. As a host for native Lepidoptera this is a modest genus for introduced plants — native genera typically support far more.

Recorded feeding on Pueraria in North America, including:

Anticarsia gemmatalis · owlet moth

Epargyreus clarus · skipper butterfly

Keystone count (genus-level) from Warren II 2026 (CC0) · Tallamy host-use records. Named species (a documented Nearctic sample, not exhaustive) from NHM HOSTS (CC0).

Species thumbnails re-hosted from iNaturalist — Creative Commons, credited per image (hover for credit). Click any species to see it on iNaturalist. Not exhaustive; many taxa have no openly-licensed photo yet.

How we know this (2) Methods & honest limits

Leaf build Direct fact

We read each species’ measured specific leaf area (leaf area per unit dry weight) from the Global Spectrum dataset and band it: thin & fast (high SLA), medium, or thick & tough (low SLA). The global median is about 10 mm²/mg.

Honest limits: A species-mean from pooled measurements — individual plants vary with light and site. A broad strategy signal, not a precise per-plant figure.

Díaz, S. et al. (2022) The global spectrum of plant form and function: enhanced species-level trait dataset. Scientific Data 9:755.

Growth strategy Derived

We place each species on Grime’s competitor–stress-tolerator–ruderal (C–S–R) triangle using the globally-calibrated “StrateFy” method: leaf size drives the competitor score, dense low-area leaves the stress-tolerator score, and thin high-area leaves the ruderal score. The result is a C/S/R percentage mix and one of 19 strategy classes; we show it in plain words and keep the percentages for the curious.

Honest limits: A species-mean strategy from pooled global leaf measurements — a broad ecological signal, not a precise per-plant or per-site value. Derived, never a measured fact.

Pierce, S. et al. (2017) A global method for calculating plant CSR ecological strategies applied across biomes world-wide. Functional Ecology 31:444–457.

Derived values are computed from open data by a published method — labelled, cited, and never shown as a direct observation. Full methodology →

Sources for this entry (16) Open & cited

[01] Scientific name & family — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503)

[02] Growth habit & duration — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503)

[03] Native status & distribution — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503)

[04] Common name — USDA PLANTS (via GBIF)

[05] Invasive / introduced status — US-RIIS v2.0 (USGS)

[06] Photos — Wikimedia Commons — CC, credited per image

[07] Ecological value — Warren II 2026 (CC0) · Tallamy host-use counts

[08] Foliage — TRY Plant Trait Database (CC BY 4.0)

[09] Height — TRY Plant Trait Database (CC BY 4.0)

[10] Functional traits — TRY Plant Trait Database (CC BY 4.0)

[11] Plant strategy — Derived — Grime’s C–S–R strategy via StrateFy (Pierce et al. 2017) from Díaz 2022 / TRY-81 leaf traits

[12] Cold hardiness (derived) — Derived from U.S. range × USDA PHZM zones

[13] Chromosomes — ChromoDB — IAPT/IOPB chromosome data series (Zenodo, CC BY 4.0)

[14] Other common names — Wikidata (CC0)

[15] Caterpillar host count — Warren II 2026 (Dryad, CC0) · Tallamy host-use counts

[16] Caterpillar species — NHM HOSTS (CC0)

Spot an error or have a better photo? Every field links to its source, and the whole dataset is open.

Cite this page Open data, please attribute

PlantKey’s data is open under CC BY-SA 4.0 — free to reuse and adapt, with attribution and the same licence. Photos keep their own per-image licence + credit (see Sources above).

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Ecological value open data

1 / 5 Keystone

Keystone (host) value — caterpillar, specialist-bee & monarch hosting. A low number means “not a keystone host,” not “low value”: generalist flower-visitor value is shown separately below.

Caterpillar host 1

⚠ invasive (US) — avoid

Deep dive

Caterpillar host · 1/5 — native butterfly & moth caterpillars that feed on this genus — the base of the food web (more caterpillars → more songbirds). Genus-level keystone count from Warren II 2026 (CC0; Tallamy host-use records), gap-filled by our GloBI derivation.

Counts are genus-level and banded 0–5. Full rubric →

Host / keystone value from open interaction data. How this is scored →

📍 In your area live

Invasive in the U.S.

Recorded in 30 states.

Introduced — Hawaii, Conterminous United States, and Pacific Basin (excl. Hawaii)

Recorded in 30 states/territories

Conservation

Invasive? Yes — widespread

Toxicity & pet safety

Check the ASPCA pet database →

Educational, not veterinary advice. If you suspect your pet ate this plant, contact a vet or pet poison-control line.

Functional traits TRY · Dryad

Wood density very low

0.25 g/cm³

light, fast wood — quick biomass for chop-and-drop mulch

Seed mass medium

13 mg

small seed — straightforward to sow

Leaf nitrogen above avg

27.6 mg/g

leaf nitrogen — a rough guide to compost/mulch value

Leaf build thin & fast

Thin & fast

thin, low-cost leaves — a fast, light-hungry build built for quick growth (measured leaf area per weight 35.1 mm²/mg)

Leaf size large

Large

large leaves (measured leaf area ~91 cm²) — a coarse, shade-casting texture

Growth strategy competitor

Vigorous competitor

a fast, resource-grabbing grower — thrives in rich, open ground and can crowd out neighbours

Chromosomes recorded

2n = 44

somatic chromosome number

Deep dive — what these mean

Wood density 0.25 g/cm³ — how heavy the wood is for its size. Denser wood = hotter, longer-burning firewood and tougher poles; lighter wood rots fast (quick mulch).

Seed mass 13 mg — average weight of one seed. Bigger seeds are easier to hand-collect & direct-sow; dust-fine seeds need surface-sowing.

Leaf nitrogen 27.6 mg/g — measured leaf N. Higher = richer prunings for compost/mulch (a measured stand-in for "dynamic accumulator" claims).

Leaf build — how thick & tough the leaves are. Thin, lightweight leaves grow fast and crave light; thick, tough leaves last longer and shrug off shade, drought & grazing. (measured leaf area per dry weight, 35.1 mm²/mg)

Leaf sturdiness — how dense & firm the leaf tissue is. Sturdier leaves hold up better to drought and browsing. (29% dry matter)

Growth strategy — where this plant sits on the three-way trade-off between out-competing neighbours, enduring hardship, and colonising disturbed ground. Competitor 45% · Stress-tolerator 26% · Pioneer 28% (Grime’s CSR, class C/CSR; derived via the StrateFy method, Pierce et al. 2017)

Measured traits from TRY + Werner et al. (N-fix), Fan et al. (roots) & FungalRoot — general guidance, not species-specific prescriptions.

More modules coming

Kudzu (var. lobata) Pueraria montana var. lobata variety

Growing & care

Wildlife & pollinators

Pueraria supports ~4 caterpillar species.

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