Pueraria phaseoloides
(tropical kudzu)

Preferred Scientific Name

• Pueraria phaseoloides (Roxb.) Benth.

Preferred Common Name

• tropical kudzu

Other Scientific Names

• Dolichos phaseoloides Roxb.
• Pueraria javanica (Benth.) Benth.

International Common Names

• English: puero
• Spanish: kudzu; kurzu; yerba kudzu
• French: kudzu tropical
• Chinese: san lie ye ye ge

Local Common Names

• Cook Islands: kutu
• Indonesia: krandang
• Lesser Antilles: bwa mang
• Malaysia: foea banga
• Thailand: suak pied

EPPO code

• PUEPH (Pueraria phaseoloides)

• Domain: Eukaryota
•     Kingdom: Plantae
•         Phylum: Spermatophyta
•             Subphylum: Angiospermae
•                 Class: Dicotyledonae
•                     Order: Fabales
•                         Family: Fabaceae
•                             Subfamily: Faboideae
•                                 Genus: Pueraria
•                                     Species: Pueraria phaseoloides

Fabaceae is one the largest families of flowering plants. The family includes about 745 genera and 19500 species that can be found throughout the world, growing in many different environments and climates (Stevens, 2012). The species within the subfamiliy Faboideae (also known as Papilionoideae) are usually herbs, shrubs, and vines and often have once-compound leaves. The genus Pueraria comprises six species native to Southern Asia (Acevedo-Rodríguez, 2005). This genus also includes the species Pueraria montana var. lobata which is a vigorous vine listed as one the most noxious weeds in the United States and one of the 100 world’s worst invasive alien species (Soria et al., 2002; ISSG, 2012; USDA-ARS, 2012).

Herbaceous vine, twining, much branched, attaining 15 m in length. Stems cylindrical; leaves alternate, trifoliolate; leaflets 3-12(14) × 2.9-8.7(13) cm, chartaceous, ovate or rhombic, the lateral ones asymmetrical, the apex acute, the base cuneate on the central leaflet, rounded-obtuse on the lateral ones, the margins entire; upper surface dark green, dull, pubescent, especially on the veins; lower surface pale green, strigose, with prominent venation; petiolules swollen, 4-5 mm long, pubescent; petioles sulcate, pubescent, up to 12 cm long, with the base swollen; stipules narrowly lanceolate, 3-5 mm long; stipels subulate, minute, persistent. Pseudo-racemes axillary, solitary, up to 25 cm long, with 2-3 mauve to deep purple flowers per node; bracts minute, persistent; peduncles pubescent and ca 15 cm long. Calyx campanulate, approximately 5 mm long. Fruit is a linear, flattened legume, 6-9 cm long, slightly curved, dehiscent by valves that open in a spiral, the valves septate between the seeds. Seeds are numerous, 8-25 per pod, approximately 3 mm long, oblong, dark brown to almost black (Acevedo-Rodríguez, 2005).

P. phaseoloides has been deliberately introduced into moist tropical and subtropical regions of the world to be used as a forage legume species (Skerman et al., 1991; Cook et al., 2005). In Puerto Rico, this species was apparently originally introduced on lands of the Agricultural Experiment Station in Mayagüez in 1940 from material from Malaya (Acevedo-Rodríguez, 2005). At the Smithsonian Herbarium, the first record of this species for the West Indies comes from a collection made in 1945 in La Vega, Dominican Republic (Smithsonian Herbarium Collection).

Soil drainage

• free

Soil reaction

• acid
• neutral

Soil texture

• heavy
• light
• medium

Special soil tolerances

• shallow

P. phaseoloides reproduces sexually by seeds and also vegetatively by runners (i.e., stolons) forming dense colonies in a short time period (Skerman et al., 1991). Plants produce a prolific amount of viable seeds (10-20 seeds/pod) which can be dispersed by animals and by water (Acevedo-Rodríguez, 2005). Plant fragments may be broken off and dispersed to new locations by humans, wild animals, livestock, vehicles, and/or floodwaters (Skerman et al., 1991; Cook et al., 2005).

P. phaseoloides has economic value as a forage and cover crop, and is frequently deliberately used to suppress other weed growth, but it can also get out of control and itself become a problem. This has been the case especially in West Africa, e.g. in oil palm, where it has been listed as one of the three dominant weed species requiring control (Gill and Onyibe, 1988). Waterhouse (1993) lists P. phaseoloides as a widespread and important weed in Thailand and Singapore, and as present as a weed in Indonesia, Myanmar and the Philippines.

P. phaseoloides is an aggressive invasive vine that grows rapidly forming dense colonies that engulf native vegetation, climbing high into mature tree canopies and shading-out trees and shrubs in the understory (Randall, 2012). This species has the potential to completely out-compete vegetation communities and degrade other plants by smothering them under a solid blanket of leaves, by girdling woody stems and tree trunks, and by breaking branches or uprooting entire trees and shrubs by the strength of its weight (Acevedo-Rodríguez, 2005; PIER, 2012; USDA-ARS, 2012).

• Proved invasive outside its native range
• Has a broad native range
• Abundant in its native range
• Tolerates, or benefits from, cultivation, browsing pressure, mutilation, fire etc
• Pioneering in disturbed areas
• Benefits from human association (i.e. it is a human commensal)
• Fast growing
• Has high reproductive potential

• Altered trophic level
• Ecosystem change/ habitat alteration
• Modification of nutrient regime
• Modification of successional patterns
• Monoculture formation
• Reduced native biodiversity
• Threat to/ loss of endangered species
• Threat to/ loss of native species

• Competition - monopolizing resources
• Competition - shading
• Competition - smothering
• Competition - strangling
• Rapid growth

• Highly likely to be transported internationally deliberately
• Highly likely to be transported internationally illegally

P. phaseoloides is grown as a cover crop in oil palm, rubber and coconut. When it is grown with other legume species, it suppresses weed infestation, controls erosion on hilly slopes, enriches the soil by fixation of atmospheric nitrogen by the root nodules, and also adds organic matter from its leaf litter. It also serves as an excellent soil cover. Horrell (1958) found P. phaseoloides to be self-mulching and to add considerable nitrogen by mineralization of leaf litter.

P. phaseoloides is also planted as a pasture legume together with other grass species. Teitzel (1969) reported that Puero-based mixed pastures were some of the most productive areas under grazing in the wet tropics of North Queensland, Australia. In the tropical Americas this species is considered a valuable fodder plant and it is intentionally planted to be used as cut and carry forage (Skerman et al., 1991; Cook et al., 2005). 

The tuberous roots are edible and the stems can be used as ropes. In traditional medicine, it is used to control boils and ulcers.