The vine that ate the South has a nasty case of gas.

Kudzu - the ubiquitous vine that covers shrubbery, trees, telephone poles and anything else in its path - may be pumping significant levels of pollution into the region's air.

University of Virginia researcher Manuel Lerdau and State University of New York scientist Jonathan Hickman believe that kudzu is emitting sizable amounts of ground-level ozone - potentially increasing smog, aggravating respiratory ailments and quickening the pace of global climate change.

"No one likes kudzu," said Lerdau, director of UVa's Blandy Experimental Farm in Clarke County. "If we're right, then it'll be one more big reason to dislike kudzu."

Kudzu produces two key ingredients of ozone. It emits from its leaves a volatile organic compound called isoprene into the air. And its roots convert atmospheric nitrogen into ammonium, some of which can leak into the soil where it is converted by bacteria into nitric oxide.

In the presence of sunlight, isoprene and nitric oxide mix together to make ozone.

Many plants form the precursors of ozone.

Yet according to the researchers' initial results, it appears that kudzu produces ozone's ingredients faster and in larger quantities. Kudzu emits isoprene five to 10 times quicker than similar plants and it produces nitric oxide at a rate of up to three times faster than its peers.

The fast-growing plant covers an estimated 3 million hectares, or 11,580 square miles, in the United States, primarily in the Southeast. With each passing year, kudzu spreads across another 50,000 hectares, or 200 square miles.

"There's enough kudzu already to be affecting ozone levels in the U.S.," Lerdau said. "With 3 million hectares, you can imagine that's quite a bit of ozone."

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