A two-state task force is trying to figure out how to cope with the invasive shrub, officially known as vitex rotundiflora, which threatens to choke out native species along the coastlines of North Carolina and South Carolina.

'If we don't do something now, then in 50 years or 100 years, or however long it takes, it will be the kudzu of the coast,' said David Nash, a dune plant expert with the North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service.

Like the kudzu vine, a Japanese plant that drapes road embankments and other open areas across the Southeast, beach vitex was brought to the United States with good intentions.

The shrub is a native to Korea and other countries in the western Pacific and was introduced to the southeastern United States in the mid-1980s as an ornamental to help with dune stabilization.

It has been reported from Ocracoke Island to Folly Beach, and has also been seen on Florida and Alabama shorelines.

The shrub grows rapidly, rising 1 to 2 feet high, reaching up to 12 feet in diameter and producing runners up to 60 feet long. That means it could crowd out sea oats and the threatened seabeach amaranth.

'It's attractive; I won't take that away from it,' said Nash, North Carolina's coordinator for the Carolinas Beach Vitex Task Force. 'The biggest problem is that it is very aggressive. None of the native plants can keep up with it.'