Kudzu
Overview
Kudzu is a plant in the genus Pueraria
Pueraria
Pueraria is a genus of 15–20 species of plants native to Asia.The genus is polyphyletic, with different species being related to species in Glycine , Amphicarpaea, Nogra, Teyleria, Neonotonia, Pseudovigna, Pseudeminia, Pachyrhizus , and other genera of the tribe Phaseoleae.- Species :The...

in the pea
Pea
A pea is most commonly the small spherical seed or the seed-pod of the pod fruit Pisum sativum. Each pod contains several peas. Peapods are botanically a fruit, since they contain seeds developed from the ovary of a flower. However, peas are considered to be a vegetable in cooking...

 family Fabaceae
Fabaceae
The Fabaceae or Leguminosae, commonly known as the legume, pea, or bean family, is a large and economically important family of flowering plants. The group is the third largest land plant family, behind only the Orchidaceae and Asteraceae, with 730 genera and over 19,400 species...

, subfamily Faboideae
Faboideae
Faboideae is a subfamily of the flowering plant family Fabaceae or Leguminosae. One acceptable alternative name for the subfamily is Papilionoideae....

. It is a climbing, coiling, and trailing vine
Vine
A vine in the narrowest sense is the grapevine , but more generally it can refer to any plant with a growth habit of trailing or scandent, that is to say climbing, stems or runners...

 native to southern Japan and southeast China
East China
East China is a geographical and a loosely-defined cultural region that covers the eastern coastal area of China.Although an intangible and loosely defined concept, for administrative and governmental purposes, the region is defined by the government of the People's Republic of China to include...

. Its name comes from the Japanese name
Japanese language
is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...

 for the plant, . It is a weed that climbs over trees or shrubs and grows so rapidly that it kills them by heavy shading. The plant is edible, but often sprayed with herbicides..
Five species in the genus Pueraria
Pueraria
Pueraria is a genus of 15–20 species of plants native to Asia.The genus is polyphyletic, with different species being related to species in Glycine , Amphicarpaea, Nogra, Teyleria, Neonotonia, Pseudovigna, Pseudeminia, Pachyrhizus , and other genera of the tribe Phaseoleae.- Species :The...

are closely related and the name kudzu describes one or more of them.
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