HEBERLING LAB

This specimen of Kudzu (Pueraria montana var. lobata) was collected on October 28, 1920 by Neil MCCallum at West End Park, Pittsburgh.  The plant was collected in cultivation, meaning it was intentionally planted and grown in a garden or similar. This specimen is one of the earliest records of the species in Pittsburgh (It was also collected two years before).

Kudzu is a vine in the bean family, Fabaceae, with beautiful purple flowers. Native to East Asia, it was introduced as an ornamental  the United States from from Japan in 1876 at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition.  It was promoted in the 1930-40s in the southern US to prevent soil erosion.  However, it is now an invasive species, with big ecological impacts.  It is widely known as "the vine that ate the South."  A quick google search will show you striking pictures of the vine covering large areas of land, covering trees, shrubs, logs, and everything.  It shades out existing vegetation and can drastically alter the ecosystem.

It is not common in Pennsylvania, but perhaps might become so.  It is listed by the state as a "Class A Noxious Weed" - meaning it is assessed as a high invasive risk and ecological/economical concern, but is uncommon and possible to be eradicated.  It can not be sold or planted commercially in PA.

It is currently most invasive in the South, but a study published in 2009 by Dr. Bethany Bradley and others suggests that the species may become more invasive in the north (including Pennsylvania) as climate change continues.

You can find this specimen online here, and search our collection at midatlanticherbaria.org.

Kudzu (Pueria montana) growing along the Kiskiminetas River in Apollo, Pennsylvania in 2018.  It was likely planted, but seems to be doing quite well.

Botanical look-alikes...on the other side of the world!
East Asia-Eastern North America are more similar than you might think.
 
This maple specimen was collected in August 1937 by J.R. Steck and R.J. Templeton in Pittsburgh’s Schenley Park. At first look, it is clearly a maple...its leaves have that “mapley” look!  But upon closer inspection, this specimen was collected from a planting. The species is from Japan – Honshū maple or grey-budded snake-bark maple (Acer rufinerve).

Now, check out this doppelgänger specimen, another maple collected by famed Carnegie Museum curator Otto Jennings in late August 1925 in Elk County, Pennsylvania. This similar looking species is found across Eastern North American forests – striped maple (Acer pensylvanicum).  Though you can’t tell from these leaves and stems, the bark also has distinctive striping (hence the name) that is uncannily like its Asian relative species above.
 
There are many species across Eastern North America and far away East Asia that look almost identical at first glance.  Why?  This observation has long been of interest to botanists for centuries, notably by Asa Gray at Harvard in the 1800s. Eastern North America and East Asia are comprised of many shared genera across continents, with species within remarkably similar!  These are called “disjunct” genera, resulting from a shared evolutionary history, with both floras once connected in geological time but have since been separated over many thousands of years. Interestingly, of the shared genera between regions, East Asia comprised roughly two times the number of species within compared to Eastern North America.  A lot of interesting evolutionary studies have been done on this disjunction across these floras, with many more to do!
 
Find these maple specimens and 3,030 more from across the world in the Carnegie Museum Herbarium here: https://midatlanticherbaria.org/portal/collections/list.php?db=328&includecult=1&taxa=Acer&usethes=1&taxontype=2
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