Kudzu, sometimes referred to as "the plant that ate the South", is a fast growing vine native to southern Japan and southeast China. Kudzu plants can grow as much as 1 foot (30 cm) a day. From 1935 to the early 1950s the Soil Conservation Service encouraged farmers in the South to plant kudzu to reduce soil erosion. Kudzu was recognized as a pest weed by the United States Department of Agriculture in 1953, and was removed from its list of permissible cover plants. It is estimated that kudzu has taken over as much combined area as the state of Vermont.

In botanical terms, a fruit consists of the ripened ovary and seed of a flowering plant. What most people consider the strawberry "fruit" is not technically a fruit. The strawberry is considered an "accessory fruit". The fleshy part is derived from the peg at the bottom of the hypanthium that held the ovaries, and not from the ovaries themselves which form the "seeds". So from a technical standpoint, the seeds are the actual fruits of the plant, and the flesh of the strawberry is modified receptacle tissue.