「Plants」with「beg for mercy」as KUDZU, a plant name derived from Japanese. While kudzu seems to have become a bit of a scourge in North America due to near-perfect growing conditions and no natural predators, in Asia the plant grows much like most other plants, and is considered highly beneficial for a variety of ecological and pharmaceutical reasons, as well as being great animal feed and used as an ingredient for confections in Japan. Perhaps though, someone long ago also knew of the incredible, prolific growth potential of kudzu (in addition to southerners living in the United States of America), and this glyph was created as a result: the「plant」that causes you to「beg for mercy」as it strangles the life out of everything nearby, so much so that it is nearly impossible to locate carcasses of animals that have died within a kudzu entanglement, but the snakes always seem to find the ankles of the searchers.
Also meaning INTERWOVEN, INTERTWINED depicting the ENTANGLED growing conditions of these vines. Twisting or weaving of exceptionally long, tough fibers into HEMP CLOTH, CANVAS used for binding the feet of the sitting person concubines as they「beg for mercy」and perhaps the HEMP ROPE used for hanging folks depicted in the glyph as they「beg for mercy」too.
Lower elements can be interpreted as「tongue in open mouth, person head and neck in high tension for a long time and gasping, wrapped by rope and hanged by the neck.」Or also as「tongue in open mouth (hollering), wrapped and concealed no-longer-integrated feet of person.」Raw and growing KUDZU is fairly stinky (lowermost element).
Glyph apparently not used to represent raw cannabis used for other purposes, such as inhalation of the emitted fumes when heated, although raw and growing hemp also is fairly stinky (lowermost element). Vines do not possess the physical structure to permit standing alone, hence vines creep along the soil until an erect tree, wood (木) or woody is located, at which time the parasitic vine begins to wrap itself around the erect wood and climb with vertical motion, using the host for support. These same attributes can apply to a person with pulverized feet bones who has become a service provider.

External source definitions …excluding politically incorrect concepts and other meanings deemed offensive today; may include extended definitions, euphemisms, and mnemonics)
Chinese: kudzu (Pueraria lobata); hemp cloth
Japanese EDRDG: arrowroot, kudzu
Unihan extended: edible bean

Used within names (nanori)
か　･　かず　･　かずら　･　かっ　･　かつら