A most talked-about weed - one that nobody smokes yet – Kudzu

You can fry it, boil it, grind it into flour, feed it to livestock, and cuss at it, but I never did hear of anyone smoking kudzu. Someone is going to try smoking dried kudzu leaves. Of that I am confident. Whether or not it will then begin to take the place of rightfully maligned tobacco leaves – well, that is another story, one that is yet to be written.

For the most part, kudzu likes things warm and wet. I have not heard of it growing in the desert, but I would not want to bet any money that it could not do so. Kudzu would have a tough time finding things upon which to grow in real sandy desert country, but give the vines a hardy mesquite tree to assault, and the winner of the battle would almost certainly be the kudzu.

All the same, the growing range of kudzu is truly a large one. It is no longer confined to growing in the Southeasterrn United States (from Texas, eastward). It likes Oklahoma, Arkansas, Kansas, and Nebraska, too. The many states of the Mid-Atlantic Region are home to kudzu vines, much to the chagrin of many of those who live and work there. New England , New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania have become kudzu's vacation spots whenever it seeks a summertime cooling off. Having visited all of the Atlantic states, West Virginia, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio, kudzu sent its progeny on into the Northwest. It found a home in the states of Washington and Oregon. Although kudzu does not appreciate really cold winter weather, it has been found growing as far north as Ontario, Canada. Having started off in the United States as a visitor from Asia, kudzu has kept going with its world travels. It has been found growing near Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

When, a person might ask, will kudzu settle down. For a vine with a great big foot stuck deep in the ground, kudzu really gets around.

In Japan, whence kudzu came, kudzu is known as "kuzu." When kudzu was first imported into Florida, way back when, it was highly regarded as a good forage for cattle and any other critters who like to dine on leaves. Kudzu vines are loaded with leaves.

In fact, if you turn kudzu loose around anything that will lend support to its fast-growing vines (often one foot a day), you will get more leaves than you planned on getting. Kudzu vines grow so crazily that they will quickly cover up whatever they are growing upon with their clinging vines and shading leaves. Whatever Kudzu covers over does not usually fare too well. You can understand that any trees or other vegetation they piggy back ultimately die from lack of sunlight, all of which is hogged by the impenetrable covering of kudzu leaves. A bit harder to understand is kudzu’s effect on things like telephone poles, cell phone towers, railroad signal devices, and even parked cars, and buildings that are never or infrequently inhabited or used one way or another.

In late summer, usually in August, kudzu sends out stalks of purple-colored flowers that please people (and maybe other kinds of critters) with a pleasant smell, much like grape "Kool Aid." Knowing kudzu, however, those flowers are usually going to be way up high overhead; that is, few people have them in the living room in flower vases. In fact, most folks are too busy cussing at kudzu to go kudzu flower picking.

It is said that if you give kudzu a head start and, later, decide to get rid of what you allowed to assemble, you will need lots of time and plenty of muscle to rid yourself of it. "Weed killer" solutions work on kudzu, but the word is that it may require ten years for you to kill the stuff all the way down to its roots. The roots are very robust and are deep in the ground. Some people, the dumb but brave people, that actually planted kudzu in the garden, are in for plenty of "weeding the hard way" as they try to get rid of the stuff. It is apparent that kudzu is not a poisonous plant. Therefore, you can grab onto a kudzu vine and play "King Arthur and the sword-in-the-rock" with it, trying to be the one who can pull it out of the ground. Good luck! Better to buy a hungry goat or a cow and stake them out next to the kudzu. It is hard for any plant, even kudzu, to grow once it is inside of a goat or a cow!

A friend of mine in Virginia, Jerald Johnston, is lucky enough to have a cousin, Alan Johnston, who enjoys making photographs of misbehaving kudzu. Alan told Jerald to let me know that it was OK to illustrate this kudzu article with several of his photos, each of them very artistic. Each of those photos also lend credence to the belief held by many who live in kudzu country that it is the wise person who makes sure the windows are closed every night before dropping off to sleep. Kudzu, you see, aims at open windows and even at open doors. Caution is required in kudzu country.

And that, of course, points to another interesting use for kudzu. If you are attempting to hide from the law, from your spouse, or from the military draft, find a little cabin in the kudzu-laden woods and repair to it. Enter and leave the cabin at its far side, away from the road or pathway. Eat only tomatoes and cold cuts – no fires – and no one will ever spot you – or your cabin, for that matter.

Now it is time to get down to business here in this little kudzujammer.

In Japan, kudzu is known as kuzu, not that the Japanese have any aversion to "d," They may not be all that partial to gobbling kudzu-derived foods, but you can get some tasty sauce (kuzuan) to go with cooked starch "gruel" (kuzuyu) and, for dessert, a bit of sweet starch cake (kuzumochi). If those don’t turn you on completely, you can have some "chicken-fried" kudzu leaves, kudzu shoots that mimic snow peas sauteed with onions and mushrooms, all washed down with several cups of kudzu tea made by pouring boiling water over crushed, dried kudzu leaves. In the event you celebrate all of that by overindulging in adult beverages, you can do as Martha Stewart has suggested (on her Website) and get over the resulting pain with kudzu root for a "hangover helper."

Enjoy the photos with this kudzuper article. Those with the watermark for "Premier Pictures" are all copyrighted by Alan Johnston. The rest of the photos were made by Jack Anthony who also exhibited them on his Website, jjanthony.com. I must confess that I have never made a photo of anything kudzu. It is way too dark under all of those leaves for my little digital camera sort of thing to be able to compete with those professionals.

In my kudzuming gathering of information, I came across a kudzu cookbook, and you might want to see if it still exists or if Hitler burned it with all the rest of those books he did not appreciate. "Kudzu Cuisine" is its title and the author is Juanitta Baldwin (two "t"s). I understand that her cookbook includes recipes for breads, jellies, and the use of new kudzu shoots in place of spinach.

By the time I was finished looking for all of this good information, I still had one lingering question. If there were such a thing, what kinds of critters would there be in a kud zoo?

Some other kudzu articles here on HubPages:

http://nancy30.hubpages.com/hub/Kudzu-In-The-Southeastern-United-States

http://annaclay.hubpages.com/hub/The-Kudzu-Experiment