This week: American Pokeweed Is Pretty and Poisonous
Hello!
I recently swiped past a social media post where someone had pruned an American Pokeweed (Phytolacca americana) plant into a tree shape — a strange choice, I thought, for a few reasons.
First, most people don’t intend to grow Pokeweed. It’s a wild plant that magically appears in disturbed areas, including urban lots, because birds disperse its seeds. It grows to ten feet or more, has a deep taproot, and produces clusters of berries in late summer. While its berries are striking, the entire plant is poisonous (even deadly) if ingested, and it gives some people a poison ivy-like rash if they touch it. So, it’s not a natural fit for places where curious kids (or adults) could attempt hijinks.
So, why is this person on Instagram growing Pokeweed at all? It has several practical applications. First, people do actually eat it even though it is poisonous. Like Elderberries, Pokeweed berries are edible when cooked and are made into jellies and syrups. Poke sallet is a Southern dish that is made by boiling the young spring shoots in multiple changes of water. Reportedly, the young plant is less toxic, and repeatedly exchanging the water washes away the bad stuff, but perhaps these food preparations are best left to history.
It’s more useful for people who like arts and crafts. Pokeweed berries can be harvested to make natural inks and dyes, as they produce a fetching hot pink color. Natural dyes are typically not color fast (or take a lot of machinations to make them long-lasting), but this is a much safer way to use this plant.
Is Pokeweed Garden-Worthy?
If you spot Pokeweed growing in your yard, should you keep it? It is a native plant that is beneficial to birds, it’s pretty, and you could get into making your own ink. My verdict: Unless you have a large property with natural areas for it to inhabit, I would remove it. There’s no shortage of Pokeweed in the woods, and there’s more risk than reward in a neighborhood: it’s the kind of plant someone will call code enforcement over, or worse, the poison control center.
Elsewhere:
It’s peak bird migration season once again! On Saturday night, more than 700,000 birds flew over Allegheny County, with the most overhead around 11 pm. Check out https://birdcast.info/ to see which birds are flying south while you’re asleep.
Have a good week,
Julie