Pueraria montana is a species of plant in the botanical family
Fabaceae. At least three sub-species (alternatively called varieties) are known. It is closely related to other species in the genus
Pueraria (
P. edulis and
P. phaseoloides) and the common name
kudzu is used for all of these
species and
hybrids between them. The morphological differences between them are subtle, they can breed with each other, and it appears that introduced kudzu populations in the United States have ancestry from more than one of the species.