There is some Interesting Information in the Wacky World of Wildflowers
Clarksville Book ReviewClarksville, TN ? Wildflower Folklore by Laura C. Martin is a book I recently found at a library book sale. It has extensive information about many plants that Southerners have been familiar with for generations.
For instance, kudzu was first introduced to the United States through the Japanese Pavilion during the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition in 1876. The Japanese used kudzu for food, medicine, and as a forage plant. Their intensive land-use practices kept it under control in their country, but we Southerners let it get out of control.
Kudzu was first thought to be a wonder cure for eroded areas here in the South because it would grow quickly even in our red clay. At first, it was grown commercially as a forage plant and was hailed as “King Kudzu.”