THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, October 29, 1995 TAG: 9510260215
SECTION: CAROLINA COAST PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: Short : 38 lines
Those vines aren't kudzu
The Oct. 22 article in The Coast by Anne Saita on kudzu was excellent.
It told of uses and the history of kudzu, as well as ways it might be controlled.
As a farmer who has kudzu on my farm, I know what a pest it can be.
My point in writing is that the cover picture with the Mazda under vines was not covered with kudzu, but wonderful-smelling honeysuckle.
The old house on page 20 does not have kudzu (the leaf is too small). I would guess English ivy or Virginia creeper (kudzu would have taken the tree).
The telephone pole on page 21 has trumpet creeper with its beautiful orange flowers.
If The Coast is going to talk about kudzu, it should at least know what it looks like.
The public is confused enough.
Tommy Harrell
Hertford
Editor's note: Mr. Harrell is right. It seems we couldn't see the kudzu for the vines.
That plant with ``broadly oval leaflets and fragrant, reddish-purple flowers'' - as we described it in our story - has a lot of partners in its cover-up of the Albemarle. Among them are the species listed by Mr. Harrell above. by CNB