Beware! Cogon Is Coming

Few of us who live in the South have never encountered Kudzu -- that lush, green plant that can choke a tree. Some even warn not to camp near a patch of the dreaded vine for fear of awakening completely covered by the stuff. Kudzu's only redeeming factor is that it covers and hides eyesores like tumbling down shacks and abandoned cars on Mississippi's highways and byways.

But you ain't seen nothing yet. Onto the plant scene marches Cogon grass, a highly invasive Asian native that even trumps our beloved Kudzu.

What is really frightful is that city workers in Tupelo recently discovered a patch of the tall weed in a drainage ditch on the west side of the city. This is the first sighting in the area of what is considered the world's worst weed. And here I thought that title was shared by crabgrass and nutgrass which grow in my lawn. I had better contact Beauty Lawn, my yard service and collector of $45 a month, and have them cast a watchful eye to the south. Incidentally, Beauty Lawn is something of a misnomer -- maybe to be renamed "We Tried But We Didn't Quite Make It Beautiful, But It Does Look Better Than Your Neighbor's (Larry's) Lawn Service" -- catchy but maybe too wordy.

According to John D. Byrd, Jr., research professor of weed science at State, "Cogon grass has no value as a hay crop, no value for wildlife habitat, minimal value as an ornamental, because it is so highly invasive." Byrd has been tracking the dreaded flora for several years, and says that in 1979 it was limited to 13 of Mississippi's 82 counties. Now it grows in about 60 and is headed north.

A word of warning to the Coopers and their fellow Lee County citizens -- you better pack up your stuff and get out of Dodge 'cause Cogon is there and is a spreading. Build you a house in a Kudzu patch and hope that Cogon won't see you.

Anyone spotting Cogon is asked to call the State Department of Agriculture and Commerce's Bureau of Plant Industry -- and ask for the Cogon Division, I guess. And be sure and not tarry after you report the sighting.

For those of you who are interested and would like to become Cogon hunters, it and Zoysia grass are the only two grasses in Mississippi that bloom immediately after turning green in the spring.

Seems to me that Cogon may be fodder (no pun intended) for a Japanese horror flick -- the name sure sounds right.

Some of you have never thought that my blog was very educational or informative. I would venture to say that nairy a one of you have ever heard of Cogon, and I feel just like Paul Revere must have felt when he warned the colonists that the British were coming.

I'm not riding a horse, but "Cogon is coming."