Asked on Sep 10, 2014
Can you identify this plant for me?
by
Sherri
+16
This shows up every year, then completely dies in the winter time. Can anyone tell me what it is?
9 answers
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It is Pokeweed (Phytolacca americana) and the berries are great food for birds, BUT the birds poop the seeds everywhere! They are very invasive in a landscape. They not only reseed prolifically, but they are perennial. If you chop it down, it will come back from the roots. They must be dug up or killed with a systemic herbicide (like Roundup) that kills the roots.
Katie Price
on Sep 10, 2014
- See 4 previous
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The pokeweed in the south can reach about 7-8' tall! the seeds will last for years in the ground too so you will pulling new shoots. As Katies says they are invasive but great brid food. and the purple will stain anything and everything! pulling them up is fairly easy when they are small but just use a shovel and dig under and lift the plant out. good luck on eradicating this beast. lol
The Garden Frog with C Renee
on Sep 10, 2014
- See 1 previous
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According to the California Invasive Plant Council it's found throughout most of the state: http://www.cal-ipc.org/ip/management/plant_profiles/Phytolacca_americana.php
Douglas Hunt
on Sep 11, 2014
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People in the rural South used to (maybe still do) eat 'poke salad' made from the new tender shoots of the Pokeweed plant. Mature foliage is toxic, but apparently the new growth is safe. I'll pass, none the less.
Katie Price
on Sep 15, 2014
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No consensus???? Here is part of just one article I Googled, " It's not just the bees that are dying. Butterfly and bird populations are in decline, too. And it's not just the neonicotinoids that are to blame. Other herbicides and pesticides, especially Monsanto's Roundup, used to grow GMO crops-and also used to contain (kill) weeds in cities and home gardens-are decimating pollinators, fish and wildlife, and some would argue, humans, to.................." There are many, many more. If scientists do not agree, why have the Brits, Europe and India for example ALL banned it?
Linda T
on Sep 16, 2014
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From the Ntional Geographic. "Another adversary in the bees' battle, as the EU reminds us, is pesticides. Pesticides themselves aren't necessarily a death sentence for bees—and debate rages over whether, when properly applied, these chemicals can be used safely among pollinators. But exposure to them seems to open the door to other killers. For example, bees exposed to sublethal doses of neonicotinoids—the type the EU is banning and that are used routinely in the U.S. on wheat, corn, soy, and cotton crops—become more easily infected by the gut parasite Nosema. Meanwhile, last year a French study indicated that this same class of chemicals can fog honeybee brains and alter behavior. And a British study on bumblebees, a natural pollinator in decline in many places, reported neonicotinoids keep bees from supplying their hives with enough food for queen production." The reason Roundup is still used recklessly here, is the Loch Brothers and their hold on so many huge corporations who lobby the politicians not to ban these poisons! (Which is now found in mothers' milk BTW!)
Linda T
on Sep 16, 2014
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Pokeweed. The seeds were used by native people for a purple ink/dye. The plant is toxic but can be prepared by boiling with multiple changes of water (3 seems to be the recommended number of water changes) and is similar to spinach and other greens to eat. The flower racemes are pretty (small white flowers) and the magenta stalks are colorful. A weed in most areas and considered invasive in many states. Perennial.
Dorothy
on Oct 04, 2014
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Early settlers used the berries to dye yarns
Diana.Davenport
on Jan 31, 2015
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Yep, It's poke sallet. And I love it! It's almost springtime in Tennessee and I'll be out looking for it. It's like a 'spring tonic' to me. Gets the digestive organs moving along smoothly and helps clean out the liver and blood (so I'm told). I have used the berries to dye wooden projects and yarn/fabric. The thicker stems can be stripped of the thin outer bark and cut up and fried just like okra - another Southern favourite. The berries are poisonous and eating the plant raw is poisonous. Don't know that it will kill you dead, but it will make you ill. I'll fix and eat it every chance I get! Send it to me - haha!
Francisco37388
on Feb 04, 2015
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