>Still, along Southern roads, the blankets of untouched kudzu create famous spectacles. Bored children traveling rural highways insist their parents wake them when they near the green kudzu monsters stalking the roadside. “If you based it on what you saw on the road, you’d say, dang, this is everywhere,” said Nancy Loewenstein, an invasive plants specialist with Auburn University.

This was my experience as a child. We'd drive by groups of huge pines completely engulfed by kudzu and my mother would tell me it grew so fast you could see it grow with your own eyes. Scary stuff, I imagined the entire country overtaken by kudzu someday.