Look how pretty our wisteria is this year.

[CommonHumanity]

60. BEWARE! Dangerous beauty - Worse than kudzu

I live in NC and make my income through my targeted grazing business (goats eating unwanted vegetation). We can eliminate kudzu in one season through repeat grazing. Kudzu is a tuber. By regrazing each time the plant's leaves grow to 75% of their full size we can exhaust the tuber/deplete its reserves. Wisteria on the other hand....there is one patch that is just now dying after 4 years of grazing.

I do consultations for people prior to contracting with them for our services and I cannot tell you the number of beautiful forest areas and hardwood trees that I have seen destroyed by wisteria. Literally hundreds. I also cannot tell you the number of residential yards we see that are carpeted by wisteria. We can often trace the growth back to the first ornamental planting installed years ago. Often the first plant was installed in a "perfect" spot. Perhaps beside a pergola or garden feature. Through the passage of time, the garden was neglected, the house was sold or left vacant or the property was simply sold to people who did not know that wisteria must be carefully controlled.

Maybe the risk is not as bad in more northern areas, but given the damage to native forests that I see on a daily basis, I would outlaw the sale of wisteria in any location where it grows easily and abundantly. I often describe it to my customers as the epitome of dangerous beauty.