In 2006 a DEC forester was taking his afternoon exercise walk in downtown Albany and noticed this big leafy legume vine smothering a privacy fence. He took some digital pictures and notified Jerry Carlson, DEC State Plant Pathologist, of the location. Ken Carnes, State Survey Coordinator from the New York Department of Agriculture and Markets, siezed the opportunity to “test-out” their new Trimble GPS backpacks and documented the location with pin-point accuracy. Later that winter, Heather Coiner, a graduate student at the University of Toronto who was studying the influence of climate change and the spread of kudzu, called from Canada and requested a kudzu sample to test for winter hardiness. After Ken and Heather dug up four of the six plants, the property owner expanded his parking lot and destroyed the remaining plants. Its location along a fence line suggested that it had been planted. Fortunately no other kudzu plants have been found in the Capital District area. Heather is in the last stages of completing her PhD at the University of Toronto.
Kudzu Vine in Albany