the South. Cultivation peaked at over 1000000 acre by 1945. Once Soil Service payments ended, much of the kudzu was destroyed as farmers turned the land over to more profitable uses. The Soil Conservation Service stopped promoting kudzu altogether by the 1950s.

Kudzu's ongoing mythos as a mile-a-minute invader is likely due to its visibility coating trees at wooded roadsides, thriving in the sunshine at the forest edge. Despite kudzu's notoriety, Asian privet and invasive roses