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A Forager’s Year

No. 121

Kudzu

Pueraria montana (incl. var. lobata)

kudzu vine, Japanese arrowroot

Flowers, buds & pollen flower clusters (blossoms for jelly, pickles or frying)

Drawing: USDA, Selected Weeds of the United States (1970)

Find
Common in the right habitat
Effort
Quick kitchen prep
ID risk
Beginner
Origin
non-native ★★★
Safety marks
  • Spray risk
Uses
  • Cooked vegetable / soup
  • Jam & jelly
  • Syrup & cordial
  • Wine & spirits
  • Pickles

Season

  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec

in season peak

Picking: No park we checked allows it. Anywhere else, ask whoever owns or runs the land. See Where you may pick.

What these mean

Find

1 Everywhere · 2 Common in the right habitat · 3 Patchy · 4 Elusive. This is about how much there is, not whether you may pick it. It is based on iNaturalist sightings within 25 km (about 15 miles) of downtown DC, counted on October 3, 2026. The four rules that each plant’s “Find” reason refers to: (A) the estimate is the confirmed sightings, plus the unconfirmed ones (scaled down where the plant has lookalikes in its genus), plus the sightings marked as planted; (B) the tier by estimate: 1,500 or more is tier 1, 250–1,499 tier 2, 50–249 tier 3, under 50 tier 4; (C) tier 1, Everywhere, also needs a source saying the plant is common in lawns, sidewalks, yards or gardens, vacant lots or towns, or at least one DC street tree of it per km of sidewalk, otherwise it is tier 2; (D) if a reliable source says the plant is rare in this region, or that wild plants rarely bear the harvest, only planted sightings count. iNaturalist is a website and phone app where people post photos of the plants and animals they see. A sighting is “research grade” when other users have confirmed what it is; “needs ID” sightings are not confirmed yet, and “cultivated” ones are marked as planted.

Effort

1 Grab & eat · 2 Quick kitchen prep (under about 30 minutes) · 3 Real work (hours, or cooking needed for safety) · 4 Project (days or equipment). Scored on the simplest worthwhile use; each plant’s page says why.

ID risk

How hard it is to harvest safely. Beginner: no dangerous lookalike, and the edible part is not easily confused with a toxic part. Careful: a toxic lookalike, or toxic parts that end up in the harvest unless removed (for example elderberry stems, unripe ground cherries), or other parts of the plant rated medium-or-higher toxicity, with reliable features to separate them. Expert only: a potentially deadly lookalike that is hard to separate, or (for not-recommended harvests like pokeweed) a plant whose safe preparation can’t be guaranteed. Toxic parts that are obviously separate and thrown away anyway (pits, seeds, skins) don’t raise it; the Toxic parts mark carries that warning.

Native or not, and the invader stars

Origin is where the plant comes from: native, non-native, or mixed (the harvest covers both). The stars rate plants on invasive plant lists: ★★★ Virginia DCR “High” or Maryland prohibited invasive · ★★ Virginia “Medium” · ★ Virginia “Low” · ☆ listed only by the Maryland Invasive Species Council or the Mid-Atlantic Plant Invaders guide (advisory) · no stars: native or not listed.

Safety marks and flags

Deadly lookalike / Toxic lookalike: a cited source names a lookalike of that danger, recorded near DC (an iNaturalist sighting within 25 km, a DC street tree, or a Smithsonian listing for DC) and looking like the part you eat. Other lookalikes are still listed, marked “not recorded near DC” or as not looking like the part you eat. Deadly means a source says eating it may be fatal or calls it deadly, or NC State rates it high severity with life-threatening symptoms (sources sometimes disagree; for example Virginia creeper). Each plant’s Lookalikes list says how to tell them apart; “harmless (may be edible)” lookalikes are listed so you know a mix-up isn’t dangerous. Cook first: cooking is needed for safety (for daylilies it is a precaution, not a sourced requirement). Eat in moderation: a source says to limit quantity or frequency (for example oxalates in sorrels and dock, ginkgotoxin, safrole). Spray risk: a source says the plant is commonly treated with herbicide in parks or lawns (invasive control, lawn weeds) or, for ginkgo, sprayed to stop fruiting. Contamination: a source says the plant concentrates pollutants. Each plant’s Safety flags list gives the details and sources.

Seasons

Start, peak and end are given in thirds of a month: early, mid or late. A plant counts as in season for a month if it is in season at any point in that month. Some greens and roots have a second window, in spring or fall; their page shows each window. A season that runs across New Year is shown as one window.

What it looks like

A fast-growing, semi-woody vine of the pea family, brought from eastern Asia and now invasive, that can climb over trees and blanket the ground (US Forest Service; NC State). Its leaves are alternate and compound, with three broad, often lobed leaflets up to 4 inches across; the leafstalks and leaf margins are hairy (Plant Invaders of Mid-Atlantic Natural Areas), and young stems are covered with stiff, rust or golden hairs (Mississippi State University). The flowers are purple, about 1/2 inch long, with a sweet grapey odor, borne in long clusters (Plant Invaders of Mid-Atlantic Natural Areas); NC State describes pea-like pink or purplish flowers in clusters 4 to 8 inches long, and UF/IFAS Extension says they smell like grape soda. Flowers form only on vines that climb, on plants usually 3 or more years old (Plant Invaders of Mid-Atlantic Natural Areas), and kudzu rarely flowers on vines trailing along the ground (US Forest Service). UF/IFAS Extension says the flowers are edible, and Eat The Weeds says blossom jelly tastes like something between apple and peach.

Safety

NC State gives no poison warning for kudzu. Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center says people with hormone-sensitive cancers and those taking tamoxifen should avoid kudzu, because studies suggest estrogenic effects; its page covers kudzu root and flower products, and it reports a woman whose kidneys became inflamed after she drank kudzu root juice for 10 days. Eat The Weeds, a foraging site, says the seeds and seed pods are not edible. Lookalike: native poison ivy, a vine with leaflets of three (Plant Invaders of Mid-Atlantic Natural Areas), can have leaves and vining stems that look identical to grown kudzu, but its leaves are hairless on the upper surface (Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources). Poison ivy has yellowish green flowers, dull white berries and bark densely covered in aerial roots, and all its parts carry urushiol, which causes a long-lasting, blistering rash (NC State); kudzu has hairy leafstalks and leaf margins, purple flowers and flat, hairy pods (Plant Invaders of Mid-Atlantic Natural Areas). Harmless lookalikes: native grapes, whose leaves have long stalks and are hairless on top and which climb with tendrils (Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources), and the small native hog peanut and round-leaf tick-trefoil, which lack kudzu’s very hairy young stems (Eat The Weeds). Kudzu is a common herbicide target: Maryland’s Department of Natural Resources says it is most often controlled by herbicides, including foliar sprays it lists for June to October, and Montgomery Parks and Arlington County treat invasive plants in their parks with herbicide. Pick only where you know the patch has not been sprayed (Eat The Weeds).

Lookalikes

Safety flags

Safety marks and flags: what this means

Deadly lookalike / Toxic lookalike: a cited source names a lookalike of that danger, recorded near DC (an iNaturalist sighting within 25 km, a DC street tree, or a Smithsonian listing for DC) and looking like the part you eat. Other lookalikes are still listed, marked “not recorded near DC” or as not looking like the part you eat. Deadly means a source says eating it may be fatal or calls it deadly, or NC State rates it high severity with life-threatening symptoms (sources sometimes disagree; for example Virginia creeper). Each plant’s Lookalikes list says how to tell them apart; “harmless (may be edible)” lookalikes are listed so you know a mix-up isn’t dangerous. Cook first: cooking is needed for safety (for daylilies it is a precaution, not a sourced requirement). Eat in moderation: a source says to limit quantity or frequency (for example oxalates in sorrels and dock, ginkgotoxin, safrole). Spray risk: a source says the plant is commonly treated with herbicide in parks or lawns (invasive control, lawn weeds) or, for ginkgo, sprayed to stop fruiting. Contamination: a source says the plant concentrates pollutants. Each plant’s Safety flags list gives the details and sources.

ID risk
Beginner
Why
No dangerous lookalike resembles the flowers: poison ivy, kudzu’s named lookalike (Plant Invaders of Mid-Atlantic Natural Areas), has yellowish green flowers (NC State), while kudzu’s are purple and grape-scented (Plant Invaders of Mid-Atlantic Natural Areas). Native grapes, hog peanut and round-leaf tick-trefoil are harmless lookalikes.
Handling hazards
Irritant sap/pulp (moderate)
Soil risk
moderate
ID risk: what this means

How hard it is to harvest safely. Beginner: no dangerous lookalike, and the edible part is not easily confused with a toxic part. Careful: a toxic lookalike, or toxic parts that end up in the harvest unless removed (for example elderberry stems, unripe ground cherries), or other parts of the plant rated medium-or-higher toxicity, with reliable features to separate them. Expert only: a potentially deadly lookalike that is hard to separate, or (for not-recommended harvests like pokeweed) a plant whose safe preparation can’t be guaranteed. Toxic parts that are obviously separate and thrown away anyway (pits, seeds, skins) don’t raise it; the Toxic parts mark carries that warning.

Handling hazards: what this means

Stings, thorns, irritating or phototoxic sap, staining hulls and spiny husks, with a severity: minor = brief discomfort; moderate = rash or blisters lasting days; serious = burns, scarring or medical care possible.

Soil risk: what this means

Based on the part you eat, following the urban-soil lead guidance on the Field safety page: higher for greens, shoots and roots; moderate for flowers; low for fruit, nuts and sap.

Field safety for every outing (poison ivy, ticks, soil, and more)

When to pick

Starts
late Jul
Peak
late Aug–late Sep
Ends
late Oct

Plant Invaders of Mid-Atlantic Natural Areas gives kudzu’s flowering as July to October; the US Forest Service says flowering runs from late July through September depending on location, and Eat The Weeds gives blossoms July through October. In DC, iNaturalist sightings with flowers run from early August to late October, and almost all fall between late August and late September. Look up: flowers form only on vines that climb into the sun (Plant Invaders of Mid-Atlantic Natural Areas; Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation).

How the dates were worked out

Every start, peak and end was re-checked in October 2026. “Sourced” means a source opened during the check states that timing for the DC or Mid-Atlantic area. “Estimated” means no source states it exactly; the reason, the evidence and the source links are under “How the dates were worked out” on each plant’s page. Peaks are often estimated, because few sources name a peak. iNaturalist evidence means research-grade sightings near DC, by month, of the plant at that stage (for example, in fruit). iNaturalist is a website and phone app where people post photos of the plants and animals they see. A sighting is “research grade” when other users have confirmed what it is; “needs ID” sightings are not confirmed yet, and “cultivated” ones are marked as planted.

Season basis: estimated: peak

Start

sourced

Peak

estimated: No source names a peak for the DC area; late August to late September is where nearly all DC flowering sightings fall, inside the August-September flowering Mississippi State University gives.

End

sourced

Evidence

start: Plant Invaders of Mid-Atlantic Natural Areas: flowers 'borne in long racemes, in July-October'. US Forest Service (FEIS): 'Flowering occurs from late July through September, depending on location'. iNaturalist (DC, 25 km): earliest flowering-annotated sighting August 2. | peak: iNaturalist (DC, 25 km): 42 of 45 flowering-annotated research-grade sightings fall between August 22 and September 24 (by month: August 6, September 37, October 2). Mississippi State University: 'Kudzu flowers August through September.' | end: Plant Invaders of Mid-Atlantic Natural Areas: 'in July-October'. Eat The Weeds: 'blossoms July through October'. iNaturalist (DC, 25 km): latest flowering-annotated sighting October 23.

Where to look

Sunny forest edges, stream valleys, roadsides and old fields, logged most in Rock Creek Park, along the C&O Canal, in Glencarlyn Park, along Four Mile Run and in Sligo Creek Stream Valley Park, where picking is not allowed; pick or dig only on private land with the owner’s permission.

Habitats
disturbed ground & waste places, vacant lots, old fields & meadows, woods edges, trailsides & thickets, floodplain & stream-valley forest
Habitats: what this means

Listed where the plant’s own sources place it in that habitat. “Disturbed ground & waste places” means a cited source places it on disturbed areas, sites, soil or ground, on waste places or waste ground, on construction or abandoned building sites (old home sites count), on rubble or in strip mines. When the source gives examples of the disturbed places, at least one example must be of that kind. Examples that do not count: natural or forestry disturbance (treefall gaps, fire, windthrow, flood scour, old riverbanks and creeks, clear-cuts); roadsides, railroads and rights-of-way; and abandoned fields, pastures and farmland, which are “Old fields & meadows”. “Vacant lots” only where a source says vacant or empty lots.

Most-logged places

None of the most-logged places allows picking.

No picking here (5 places)
  • Rock Creek Park

    158 sightings · Legal to pick: no · see them on iNaturalist

    Look but don’t pick: Rock Creek Park’s compendium bans gathering any fruit, nut, berry, seed or greenery.

  • C&O Canal NHP (towpath, Georgetown to Great Falls MD and beyond)

    49 sightings · Legal to pick: no · see them on iNaturalist

    Look but don’t pick: the C&O Canal compendium covers only edible fruits, nuts, berries and mushrooms, and NPS parks can never designate leaves, flowers, roots or sap.

  • Glencarlyn Park

    25 sightings · Legal to pick: no · see them on iNaturalist

    Look but don’t pick: Arlington County park rules say flora shall not be removed or disturbed.

  • Four Mile Run stream valley (Arlington/Alexandria)

    22 sightings · Legal to pick: no · see them on iNaturalist

    Look but don’t pick: Arlington County park rules (flora shall not be removed or disturbed) and Alexandria’s permit rule both apply.

  • Sligo Creek Stream Valley Park

    21 sightings · Legal to pick: no · see them on iNaturalist

    Look but don’t pick: Montgomery/Prince George’s parks (M-NCPPC) ban harvesting vegetation without a permit.

Most-logged places: what this means

The places with the most research-grade iNaturalist sightings within 25 km of downtown DC (re-counted in October 2026 over every named place, campuses, condominiums and private grounds included), each marked legal to pick or not. A sighting inside several named places counts once, for the smallest of them, but a sighting inside a National Park Service park never counts for a private, campus or unchecked place. iNaturalist shows where people walk and log plants, not true abundance. Private campuses, condominiums, museums, estates and utility land (Pepco’s power-line land near Sligo Creek) are marked “no” (pick only with the owner’s permission); public university campuses, city parks and other places whose picking rules were not checked (county stormwater land, the U.S. Capitol Grounds, Greenbelt’s North Woods, federal facilities such as the National Zoo) are “unknown”. A place needs at least 2 sightings, so plants with very few sightings have no places. At-risk plants (butternut, nannyberry, American chestnut, ramps, riverbank goldenrod) get places like every other plant; each page says why the plant is at risk and gives any advice its sources give. For some places, mostly Rock Creek Park, the iNaturalist map shows more sightings than the count here, because a map link cannot leave out exactly the sightings credited to another place. iNaturalist is a website and phone app where people post photos of the plants and animals they see. A sighting is “research grade” when other users have confirmed what it is; “needs ID” sightings are not confirmed yet, and “cultivated” ones are marked as planted.

Ways to use it

  • jelly: blossoms steeped overnight in boiling water, strained, then cooked with lemon juice, pectin and sugar; the liquid is gray until the lemon juice is added (Eat The Weeds)
  • pickled (Eat The Weeds)
  • batter-fried (Eat The Weeds)
  • syrup (Eat The Weeds)
  • wine (Eat The Weeds)
  • harvest blossoms when they are dry, at mid-day (Eat The Weeds)

Keeping

Use the same day; refrigerate or freeze any syrup or jelly, since there is no tested canning recipe.

Use within
pick & use same day
Keeps fresh
Same day; overnight at most in a bag in the fridge (general guidance for edible flowers). Univ. of Minnesota: harvest edible flowers the day you will use them, no more than one day early; wash gently, dry, and refrigerate in plastic bags until use.
Canning
no tested recipe: refrigerate or freeze, don’t can
Keeping basis
general guidance for its type

Ways to keep it

  • Jam/jelly as researched: syrup/jelly; canning: no tested recipe — refrigerate or freeze

    No tested canning recipe for this flower. Univ. of Maine: you cannot safely swap a different flower into a tested flower-jelly recipe; freeze the jelly or keep a small batch in the fridge and use within 2 weeks. Oregon State: flower infusions are not high-acid; do not can them with fruit-jelly methods. Treat flower syrups the same way: keep in the fridge or freezer. Eat The Weeds' kudzu blossom jelly ends with a 5-minute boiling-water process, but it is not a tested recipe.

  • Pickle as researched: pickle; canning: no tested recipe — refrigerator pickle only

    No tested recipe for pickled kudzu flowers. Treat as a refrigerated vinegar infusion, not a canned pickle.

  • Syrup as researched: syrup/jelly; canning: no tested recipe — refrigerate or freeze

    No tested canning recipe for this flower. Univ. of Maine: you cannot safely swap a different flower into a tested flower-jelly recipe; freeze the jelly or keep a small batch in the fridge and use within 2 weeks. Oregon State: flower infusions are not high-acid; do not can them with fruit-jelly methods. Treat flower syrups the same way: keep in the fridge or freezer. Eat The Weeds' kudzu blossom jelly ends with a 5-minute boiling-water process, but it is not a tested recipe.

Canning: what this means

Shelf-stable canning, three levels. Lab-tested: a lab-tested recipe from the National Center for Home Food Preservation (NCHFP) or Oregon State covers this fruit and product, or a generic recipe for its kind (the line says so, for example chokeberry). Extension recipe: a published Extension recipe (University of Alaska Fairbanks, written for Alaska species; University of Maine’s dandelion jelly), or a process that is safe only with a pH meter; follow it exactly, never improvise. No tested recipe: refrigerate or freeze, don’t can. “Hot-bottled syrup” = maple and walnut syrup, which keep when bottled hot at full syrup density. The Canning line names the exact product each source covers, for example “whole berries” or “juice”; a product not named there (such as juice from a berry with only a whole-berry recipe) has no tested recipe.

Keeping basis: what this means

“Specific to this plant” or “general guidance for its type” (for example NCHFP guidance for leafy greens applied to a wild green).

Nutrition

Not researched: in October 2026, only the calendar’s plants of the month and chicory leaves were researched.

Native or not

Synonyms checked: Pueraria lobata (Virginia plant atlas; Smithsonian checklist, which also gives P. thunbergiana) and P. montana var. lobata (VA DCR list; MISC list; Plant Invaders). USDA PLANTS lists both the species (PUMO) and var. lobata (PUMOL) as introduced in the lower 48. Mississippi State University says var. lobata is the kudzu that is a problem in the continental United States.

Origin
non-native
Native range
China to Australia (per NC State); temperate and tropical Asia and the southwestern Pacific (Plant Invaders of Mid-Atlantic Natural Areas)
Invader credit
★★★
Virginia invasive rank
High
Maryland invasive status
Advisory (MISC list)
Native or not, and the invader stars: what this means

Origin is where the plant comes from: native, non-native, or mixed (the harvest covers both). The stars rate plants on invasive plant lists: ★★★ Virginia DCR “High” or Maryland prohibited invasive · ★★ Virginia “Medium” · ★ Virginia “Low” · ☆ listed only by the Maryland Invasive Species Council or the Mid-Atlantic Plant Invaders guide (advisory) · no stars: native or not listed.

Virginia DCR, Virginia Invasive Plant Species List (effective September 2024), verbatim: "Under the DCR Invasive Species Assessment Protocol, approved by the Virginia Invasive Species Working Group, January 2024, species were ranked as exhibiting high, medium or low levels of invasiveness based on their threat to natural communities and native species. Invasiveness rank is higher for species that: • Alter ecosystem processes, such as succession, hydrology or fire regime. • Are capable of invading undisturbed natural communities. • Cause substantial impacts on rare or vulnerable species or natural communities or high-quality examples of more common communities. • Are found widely distributed and generally abundant where present. • Disperse readily to new areas. • Are difficult to control." The list also states: "The list is for educational purposes only and has no regulatory authority."

Maryland Department of Agriculture, Maryland Prohibited Invasive Plant Law and Regulations page, verbatim: "Plants on the Maryland Prohibited Invasive Plant List may not be added to stock after the effective date and should not be sold after their phase-out period ends."

No official DC invasive plant list was found.

How the ratings were set

Find
Common in the right habitat Estimate 895 = 699 research-grade iNaturalist sightings within 25 km + 196 needs-ID sightings counted in full (kudzu is the only Pueraria with research-grade sightings here) + 0 'cultivated' (planted) sightings (rule A); that is tier 2 by count (rule B). Rule D does not apply: the Digital Atlas of the Virginia Flora calls kudzu "Frequent to locally common throughout the s. Piedmont and s. mountains; infrequent elsewhere.", but infrequent is not rare or very infrequent, and Virginia’s Department of Conservation and Recreation says "kudzu stands are a common sight along roadways and bordering agricultural fields." Virginia’s Department of Conservation and Recreation also calls kudzu "Rarely flowering", but the same fact sheet says the flowers are "produced on plants exposed to direct sunlight." and the US Forest Service says "Kudzu rarely flowers on prostrate vines": flowering depends on the vine climbing into sun, like poor fruiting in shade, which is not scarcity. Final tier 2.
Effort
Quick kitchen prep Pick the blossom clusters when dry at mid-day and batter-fry them; jelly (steep the blossoms overnight, strain, cook with pectin and sugar) or pickles are a 3.
Find: what this means

1 Everywhere · 2 Common in the right habitat · 3 Patchy · 4 Elusive. This is about how much there is, not whether you may pick it. It is based on iNaturalist sightings within 25 km (about 15 miles) of downtown DC, counted on October 3, 2026. The four rules that each plant’s “Find” reason refers to: (A) the estimate is the confirmed sightings, plus the unconfirmed ones (scaled down where the plant has lookalikes in its genus), plus the sightings marked as planted; (B) the tier by estimate: 1,500 or more is tier 1, 250–1,499 tier 2, 50–249 tier 3, under 50 tier 4; (C) tier 1, Everywhere, also needs a source saying the plant is common in lawns, sidewalks, yards or gardens, vacant lots or towns, or at least one DC street tree of it per km of sidewalk, otherwise it is tier 2; (D) if a reliable source says the plant is rare in this region, or that wild plants rarely bear the harvest, only planted sightings count. iNaturalist is a website and phone app where people post photos of the plants and animals they see. A sighting is “research grade” when other users have confirmed what it is; “needs ID” sightings are not confirmed yet, and “cultivated” ones are marked as planted.

Effort: what this means

1 Grab & eat · 2 Quick kitchen prep (under about 30 minutes) · 3 Real work (hours, or cooking needed for safety) · 4 Project (days or equipment). Scored on the simplest worthwhile use; each plant’s page says why.

Sources

35 sources, each linked to the original.

  1. Rock Creek Park Superintendent’s Compendium National Park ServiceBacks up: picking rules
  2. 36 CFR 2.1 - Preservation of natural, cultural and archeological resources Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School (text of federal regulation)Backs up: picking rules
  3. 2VAC5-317, Regulations for the Enforcement of the Noxious Weeds Law (Tier 3 noxious weeds; movement of regulated articles) Virginia Administrative Code (Virginia General Assembly, Legislative Information System)Backs up: picking rules
  4. Pueraria montana var. lobata (Kudzu) NC State Extension Gardener Plant ToolboxBacks up: description, habitat, safety, native or invasive status
  5. Weekly “What is it?”: Kudzu (2022) UF/IFAS Extension Escambia CountyBacks up: description, safety, effort & ID risk, safety details
  6. iNaturalist research-grade observations of Pueraria montana within 25 km of downtown DC iNaturalistBacks up: findability
  7. Annotated Checklist of the Vascular Plants of the Washington-Baltimore Area, Part I (Shetler & Orli, 2000) Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of Natural HistoryBacks up: habitat
  8. Pueraria montana var. lobata (Kudzu) (Digital Atlas of the Virginia Flora) Virginia Botanical Associates (Digital Atlas of the Virginia Flora)Backs up: habitat, findability
  9. Edible flowers University of Minnesota ExtensionBacks up: keeping
  10. Flavored Vinegars Clemson Cooperative Extension, Home & Garden Information CenterBacks up: keeping
  11. How to Make Flower Petal Jelly Safely University of Maine Cooperative ExtensionBacks up: keeping
  12. Is jelly made from dandelion or grape hyacinth tea considered safe? Oregon State University Extension ServiceBacks up: keeping
  13. General Information on Pickling National Center for Home Food Preservation (University of Georgia)Backs up: keeping
  14. USDA PLANTS Database: Pueraria montana var. lobata (PUMOL), native status USDA NRCSBacks up: native or invasive status
  15. USDA PLANTS Database: Pueraria montana (PUMO), native status USDA NRCSBacks up: native or invasive status
  16. Virginia Invasive Plant Species List (effective date: September 2024) Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation, Division of Natural HeritageBacks up: native or invasive status
  17. Maryland Prohibited Invasive Plant Law and Regulations (Maryland Prohibited Invasive Plant List, updated January 2026; additions effective July 15, 2026; 'Next Plants To Be Assessed' 2026-2027) Maryland Department of Agriculture, Plant Protection & Weed ManagementBacks up: native or invasive status
  18. Non-Native Invasive Terrestrial Plant Species in the State of Maryland (updates approved through the April 18, 2024 MISC meeting) Maryland Invasive Species CouncilBacks up: native or invasive status
  19. Invasive Plants in the District DC Department of Energy & EnvironmentBacks up: native or invasive status
  20. Kudzu (Pueraria montana or P. lobata) invasive species fact page Wisconsin Department of Natural ResourcesBacks up: safety, picking rules, effort & ID risk, safety details
  21. Forest Pests: Invasive Plants and Insects of Maryland, Kudzu (Pueraria spp.) (Publication 02-7192012-585, 2012) Maryland Department of Natural Resources, Forest ServiceBacks up: safety, picking rules, safety details
  22. Toxicodendron radicans (Poison Ivy) NC State Extension Gardener Plant ToolboxBacks up: safety, effort & ID risk, safety details
  23. Amphicarpaea bracteata (American hog peanut) Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower CenterBacks up: safety, effort & ID risk, safety details
  24. Desmodium rotundifolium (prostrate tick-trefoil) Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower CenterBacks up: safety, effort & ID risk, safety details
  25. Vitis riparia (Riverbank Grape) NC State Extension Gardener Plant ToolboxBacks up: safety, effort & ID risk, safety details
  26. Kudzu (About Herbs, Botanicals & Other Products) Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer CenterBacks up: safety, safety details
  27. Pesticide use and notification (park treatment schedule) Montgomery Parks (M-NCPPC)Backs up: safety, safety details
  28. Budget guidance: invasive plants (Arlington County Park and Recreation Commission, November 2025) Arlington County, VirginiaBacks up: safety, safety details
  29. iNaturalist research-grade flowering-annotated observations of Pueraria montana within 25 km of Washington, DC (by date) iNaturalistBacks up: season
  30. iNaturalist research-grade observations of Pueraria montana within 25 km of Washington, DC, by month (flowering) iNaturalistBacks up: season
  31. Plant Invaders of Mid-Atlantic Natural Areas, Field Guide (Swearingen & Fulton, 2022), Kudzu, pp. 139-140 Mid-Atlantic Invasive Plant Council / Passiflora Press (hosted by Bugwood/Mid-Atlantic Invaders Tool)Backs up: season, description, habitat, safety, picking rules, native or invasive status, effort & ID risk, safety details
  32. Pueraria montana var. lobata (Munger, G. T., 2002), Fire Effects Information System USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fire Sciences LaboratoryBacks up: season, description, habitat, safety, findability, safety details
  33. Kudzu (Byrd, Maddox & Westbrooks) Mississippi State University ExtensionBacks up: season, description, safety, safety details
  34. Kudzu, Pueraria montana var. lobata (Green Deane) Eat The WeedsBacks up: season, description, uses, safety, keeping
  35. Invasive Alien Plant Species of Virginia: Kudzu (Pueraria lobata) fact sheet Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation, Division of Natural Heritage, and Virginia Native Plant SocietyBacks up: season, habitat, safety, findability, safety details