Phytolacca americana aka American Pokeweed

Phytolacca americana, known as pokeweed, poke or pokeberry, is a herbaceous perennial in the Phytolaccaceae family. It grows wild from eastern Canada south to Mexico. In the United States it ranges from Maine to Florida and west to Texas. It turns up in pastures, fence rows, clearings, woodland edges and roadsides, from sea level to about 1,400 metres.

This is a vigorous, upright plant with several stems. In gardens it reaches 4 to 10 feet (1.2 to 3 metres) tall and 3 to 5 feet (0.9 to 1.5 metres) wide. The RHS gives a top height of about 13 feet (4 metres). Each year it regrows from a thick, fleshy taproot. That root can be a foot (30 cm) long and 4 inches (10 cm) thick. The smooth stems are a striking reddish-purple and turn hollow with age. The large leaves are alternate and lanceolate to oval, with smooth edges. They can reach about 10 inches (25 cm) long and smell unpleasant when crushed. In autumn they may take on a purple tinge.

From midsummer into early autumn, small greenish-white to pinkish flowers open along slender racemes. The flowers have no true petals. What look like petals are five sepals. Glossy berries follow, green at first and ripening to deep purple-black in late summer and fall. Each berry holds about nine seeds. One plant may set tens of thousands of seeds, and these can survive in soil for over 40 years. Robins, cedar waxwings, warblers, foxes, raccoons and black bears eat the fruit. Native bees nest in the dead hollow stems.

Pokeweed grows easily in average, well-drained soil in full sun or part shade. It likes steady moisture but copes with brief dry spells. It accepts clay, loam or sand and acid to alkaline soil. It is hardy in USDA zones 4 to 8 and rated H7 in the UK. Deer and rabbits tend to leave it alone. It suits native plantings and wild areas, though it seeds itself freely and can become weedy. Birds spread the seed along fences and under power lines. To remove a plant, dig out the crown and most of the taproot. Insects rarely trouble it, but it is prone to mosaic virus.

All parts of the plant are poisonous to people, pets and livestock. The roots and seeds carry the most toxin. Eating it can burn the mouth and cause vomiting, bloody diarrhoea and convulsions, and it can kill. The sap may irritate sensitive skin, so wear gloves when handling it. Some people still eat very young spring shoots and leaves, cooked like asparagus or spinach. They must be boiled in several changes of water first. Older or red-tinged growth should never be eaten. The berries give a red ink and dye, and the root contains saponins that can serve as soap. The plant also has a long history in folk medicine.