Aralia cordata – Growing Udo

By M Fitzgerald (MitchF) April 16, 2008

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One of the great leafy vegetables from Japan that is a rare sight in American gardens is the Udo. This will be a starting look into the plant, how to grow it, and how to prepare it for consumption.

When you talk to old timers about the plants that they used to eat the shoots and stalks off of, Udo comes up a lot. This is one of those plants that, back in the day, was common in American seed catalogs.  However, it quickly fell out of favor. The plant is simple and easy to grow and the shoots you can eat are really out of this world. So, if you are ready to try something new - lets look at growing Udo.

How To Grow -

This is one of the few vegetables that you can grow in the home garden that likes to grow in dappled shade or even found, at times, in nearly full shade. This plant loves the little places most gardeners have given up on growing vegetables in. This great plant is not picky on soils, taking everything from rich and loose, to clay, to hard and rocky. The plant does not a have a lot of feeding needs to keep it going.  Compost helps but it will keep marching on without help of any kind. All it really asks for is shade and moist soil.  How easy is that?  This plant will quickly grow to three or four feet tall and will grow just as wide. In areas north of zone 8 this is an annual but zone 7 and south it will come back year after year.

History -

Okay, so beyond the knowledge that for so many years this has been eaten in both Japan and some hints of it being eaten in China, there is little knowledge of  when this wonderful plant moved from being just a wild plant to a garden staple. Used in both food and medicine in several places in the orient, this wonderful vegetable will delight you just as it did the people from it's homeland in centuries past.                                                                                                                                                                         

Medical Use -

In Chinese medicine, this wonderful plant is often used for pain.  In fact, my first interest in this plant was due to people saying it might be helpful in the fight with arthritis. While I am still researching that, I have found that many Chinese doctors have, for a long time,  been using this vegetable in its many forms for a multitude of problems. This plant still holds so many possibilities for the modern world that the outlook is bright. While I would not throw out the arthritis medication yet, this plant might be a really great plant to try.

Cooking  -

It is very hard to find information to cook udo other then raw in salads. Place the cut udo in a bowl full of cool water and a little salt. You can peel the udo and add to salads. Really a wonerful and under used thing for salad.

Thank you to arsenic for the images in this article.

About M Fitzgerald   I am a pentecostal preacher, gardener,husband, and a father. I love natives, daylilies, iris, and roses. I love teaching others, be they children or adults, about the garden and plants.

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Subject: Interesting about Udo

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Posted by Fitsy (from Hayesville, NC) on May 18, 2008 at 1:17 PM:

How interesting that Udo once was common in American seed catalogs,
and now is so rare that I'd never heard of it!

Well, it sounds very interesting. I need to find out if it is invasive. Also, there
are times when maintaining moist soil is not easy around here!

Thanks very much for the introducing me to this plant.
Fitsy

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