I'm guessing you've never lived in Georgia.

I was stationed in South Carolina. First thought.

As a child, I always heard that it was everywhere because the roots grow six feet deep and it can grow back from the roots. A quick google trying to confirm that suggests it grows twelve feet deep and is edible, among other things.

It was everywhere where I grew up, especially covering the ditches, etc alongside highways.

http://www.eattheweeds.com/kudzu-pueraria-montana-var-lobata...

https://science.howstuffworks.com/life/botany/kudzu1.htm

https://www.freeplants.com/kudzu.html

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/true-story-kud...

I worked a summer helping clear it and saw it all grow back the next year. I didn't want that job again....the lines tangle up machines so best to attack with hand tools and just cut cut cut.

It's front and center of an REM album cover [Murmur]. I guess it's more of a southern thing thus its appearance on an REM album art.

Well it is referred to as "the vine that ate the south".

Where I live anything left alone for a few years will be consumed by it. Its everywhere.

REM is from UGA