Pueraria

Pueraria is a genus of 15–20 species of plants native to Asia. The genus is polyphyletic, with different species being related to species in Glycine (which includes soybean), Amphicarpaea, Nogra, Teyleria, Neonotonia, Pseudovigna, Pseudeminia, Pachyrhizus (which includes jicama), and other genera of the tribe Phaseoleae. The best known is kudzu, also called Japanese arrowroot. These five species are closely related, and the name kudzu describes one or more of them. The morphological differences between the five species 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.