this post was submitted on 27 Sep 2024
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Science Memes

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[–] [email protected] 120 points 1 month ago (3 children)

I think the vines in the second photo are kudzu tho

[–] Death_Equity 55 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Kudzu is some wild stuff, one vine tendril grows a foot a day and it kills entire forests.

[–] Etterra 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Maybe we could start rolling it up into balls and burying it for carbon sequestering. I mean it's just an incredible nuisance otherwise.

[–] Death_Equity 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

That's a good idea, then we invest in our future with oil.

That would require a massive and expensive effort, no chance that bill would pass regardless of the jobs it would create.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

I think that would make coal. Oil is made by algal anr plankton blooms, which we are also making.

Both also need heat, pressure, and time to form, so synthetic carbon products are certainly chearper.

[–] Alexstarfire 32 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Definitely. OP is clueless.

[–] Voyajer 27 points 1 month ago (1 children)

English Ivy happily spreads too and will also smother natives.

[–] shalafi 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Yeah but it won't grow in the sun.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 month ago

My yard begs to differ.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

English ivy may grow better in Kentucky soil than Kent chalk, but I'm not familiar with that in the way I am kudzu.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago

thatspartofthejoke.jpg

[–] stupidcasey 17 points 1 month ago

Oh in that case Kakugo shiro

[–] ace_garp 92 points 1 month ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 56 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 35 points 1 month ago (2 children)

It's like wallpaper, but peelable.

[–] Shard 20 points 1 month ago

Environmentally friendly peelable wallpaper

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Depends on adhesive and era but today mostly yes

[–] tacosplease 2 points 1 month ago

Yeah the only kind of wallpaper I've encountered was old and did not peel away. You had to steam it, scrape it, burn it... I'm glad it's easier to work with today.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago

Mrs. Doubtfire voice "Hellooo!"

[–] j4k3 39 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Kudzu was the last bioweapons unit of the Union army in the US civil war. It never surrendered, it is still fighting the American South, and winning the guerilla war.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago

I wish it luck on the south.

-Californian

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

Reminds me of tumbleweeds, which may as well be a Soviet bioweapon.

[–] [email protected] 34 points 1 month ago

I'll leave this here, as I'm particularly bothered by the weird megamyth of kudzu in the US, as is evidenced but the other comments.

English ivy is actually a generally bigger threat but it never gets any real attention.

I will concede that the image above is kudzu tho.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/true-story-kudzu-vine-ate-south-180956325/

[–] [email protected] 32 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Playing whack a mole with my neighbours ivy. Keeps popping up on my side of the fence. Fuck whoever brought it to Australia.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I'm playing whack a mole with my own ivy. Fuck the prior house owners for letting it get out of hand. I got all of it from the trees and the side of the house but it always grows back. I'm still finding sprouts from thick woody vines that have been there forever apparently. I tried removing it from the fence but realized very quickly that it's the only thing holding it together. 😒

And fuck the English for bringing it over (we both know it was them, even their plants are colonizers).

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Same. I have a fence that's barely still standing now that I removed the ivy. I've been pulling it and spraying it for several years now. I know I'll never win, but I'm doing my best to keep it in check. The most painful part is when I go to garden centers and see it for sale. It makes me want to cry.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago

The most painful part is when I go to garden centers and see it for sale.

"Buy it for life!"

notlikethat.jpg

[–] QuantumStorm 26 points 1 month ago (4 children)
[–] JusticeForPorygon 10 points 1 month ago

IIRC a lot of it has at some point been sprayed with super toxic herbicide to try and kill it off.

Don't quote me on that though I'm just quoting a Wendigoon video from memory

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago (1 children)

It's difficult to eat your way through an invasive species. Himalayan Balsam is also edible but it's thriving in the UK.

In fact edibility is often the reason these things are so invasive, it's why American Signal crayfish are over in the UK.

[–] _stranger_ 4 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Texas: Hold my beer.

https://www.chron.com/life/wildlife/article/lionfish-texas-gulf-19717247.php

(Also Texas: Have you tried hunting the kudzu from a helicopter using automatic weapons?)

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

I've seen someone collecting lionfish, basically using a litter picker and a bag.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Because Crake is saving it for some special project at Rejoov.

[–] QuantumStorm 5 points 1 month ago

I hate (and am terrified) that I understood this reference. That series is horrifying.

[–] MeatPilot 22 points 1 month ago

Kudzu CONSUME

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Nah it’s pretty intent on covering the whole of England too tbh. Good for the bees in September tho ☺️

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Near rivers it has to contend with Himalayan Balsam, and the bees love that stuff too.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Yeah I quite like the ol’ Himalayan balsam to be honest - very popular with the bumble bees. Gets a bad rap in the uk because it’s supposedly ‘invasive’, but I take rather a dim view of that kind of talk to be sure.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

They do destroy biodiversity but at least they are pretty and won't fuck you up like Giant Hogweed.

[–] BluesF 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

And you can eat it (as long as you don't eat too much in case you fuck your kidneys)

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

Aye, this is the problem with a lot of invasive edibles. Too few people are interested in foraging and usually you can only eat so much foraged stuff.

If everyone went out with tubs, bags and baskets on their days off and did a bit of foraging to make their diets a bit more varied and healthy then we might be able to make a dent in things like Himalayan Balsam and American Signal Crayfish. Realistically though we'd just have to limit foraging of easier to identify and prepare plants and fungi from easier to access areas.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Kudzu is Chinese arrowroot tho?

~~Science~~ uninformed memes

[–] angrystego 4 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Verbascum thapsus in Europe (nice medicinal plant):

[–] angrystego 6 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Verbascum thapsus in Hawaii (alien mutant invasion):

[–] Iron_Lynx 1 points 1 month ago

Maybe it's just me, but the second one in my brain gets voiced by LazerPig to the backing of Rule Britannia