American Pokeweed (New York City EcoFlora Volunteer Guide)

American Pokeweed

Phytolacca americana

Summary ⁵

American pokeweed (Phytolacca americana), or simply pokeweed, is a herbaceous perennial plant in the pokeweed family Phytolaccaceae growing up to 8 feet (2 meters) in height. It is native to the eastern United States and has significant toxicity.

P. americana is known as pokeberry,poke root, or inkberry, also as Virginia poke or simply poke, as pigeonberry, or redweed or red ink plant, or, in Chinese medicine, chuíxù shānglù (垂序商陸). The plant is also referred to as poke sallet or polk salad, and this and related terms can also refer to the cooked leaves of the plant, see Cultural significance below.

At the Garden ⁶

Phytolacca americana can be found in many places across the garden thanks to its weedy nature. The best places to find it are inside the Thain Family Forest and around Twin Lakes. Pokeweed is a common weed and can be found across New York City. In January 2017, it was the most commonly observed plant species in NYC, owing to its ability to grow in many different habitats and its unique and eye-catching purple stems and berries.

Description ⁷

Plant Type: Perennial herbaceous plant which can reach a height of 10 feet (3 meters), but is usually 4 ft (1.2 m) to 6 ft (2 m). However, the plant must be a few years old before the root grows large enough to support this size. The stem is often red as the plant matures. There is an upright, erect central stem early in the season, which changes to a spreading, horizontal form later in the season with the weight of the berries. Plant dies back to roots each winter. Stem has a chambered pith.

Leaves: The leaves are alternate with coarse texture with moderate porosity. Leaves can reach sixteen inches in length. Each leaf is entire. Leaves are medium green and smooth with what some characterize as an unpleasant odor.

Flowers: The flowers have 5 regular parts with upright stamens and are up to 0.2 inches (5 mm) wide. They have white petal-like sepals without true petals, on white pedicels and peduncles in an upright or drooping raceme, which darken as the plant fruits. Blooms first appear in early summer and continue into early fall.

Fruit: A shiny dark purple berry held in racemose clusters on pink pedicels with a pink peduncle. Pedicels without berries have a distinctive rounded five part calyx. Fruits are round with a flat indented top and bottom. Immature berries are green, turning white and then blackish purple.

Root: Thick central taproot which grows deep and spreads horizontally. Rapid growth. Tan cortex, white pulp, moderate number of rootlets. Transversely cut root slices show concentric rings. No nitrogen fixation ability.

Uses ⁷

Pokeweed berries are reported to be a good food source for songbirds such as gray catbird (Dumetella carolinensis), northern mockingbird (Mimus polyglottos), northern cardinal (Cardinalis cardinals), and brown thrasher (Toxostoma rufum), other bird species including mourning dove (Zenaida macroura), and cedar waxwing (Bombycilla cedrorum), and small mammals apparently tolerant of its toxins, including raccoon, opossum, red and gray fox, and the white-footed mouse.

Pokeweeds are used as sometime food sources by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species, including the giant leopard moth (Hypercompe scribonia).

Some pokeweeds are grown as ornamental plants, mainly for their attractive berries; a number of cultivars have been selected for larger fruit panicles.

Owen notes that "Indians and early settlers used the root in poultices and certain drugs for skin diseases and rheumatism."

The late 19th century herbal, the King's American Dispensatory, describes various folk medical uses that led individuals to ingest pokeberry products. Phytolacca extract was advertised as a prescription weight loss drug in the 1890s.

Pokeweed is promoted in alternative medicine as a dietary supplement that can treat a wide range of maladies including mumps, arthritis and various skin conditions. While pokeweed has been subject to laboratory research, there is no medical evidence that it has any beneficial effect on human health.

Poke is a traditional southern Appalachian food. The leaves and stems can both be eaten, but must be cooked, usually boiled three times in fresh water each time. The leaves have a taste similar to spinach; the stems taste similar to asparagus. To prepare stems, harvest young stalks prior to chambered pith formation, carefully peel the purple skin away, then chop the stalk up and fry in meal like okra. Traditionally, poke leaves are boiled, drained, boiled again, then fatback is added and cooked some more to add flavor. Poisonings occur from failure to drain the water from the leaves at least once. Preferably they should be boiled, drained, and water replaced two or more times.

As noted by the OARDC staff scientists:

"Children are most frequently poisoned... [and] Infants are especially sensitive and have died from eating only a few raw berries. Although boiled young shoots have been eaten as greens and berries cooked in pie, ingestion of any part of the plant cannot be recommended. Adults have been poisoned, sometimes fatally, by eating improperly prepared leaves and shoots, especially if part of the root is harvested with the shoot, and by mistaking the root for an edible tuber."

Although all parts of the plant are considered toxic and the root is never eaten and cannot be made edible, the late 19th century herbal, the King's American Dispensatory, describes various folk medical uses that led individuals to ingest pokeberry products, and festivals still celebrate the plant's use in its historical food preparations (see below). Authorities and all agree pokeweed should never be eaten uncooked.

Plant toxins from Phytolacca are being explored as a means to control zebra mussels.

The toxic extract of pokeweed berries can be processed to yield a red ink or dye.

During the middle of the 19th century wine often was coloured with juice from pokeberries.

Sources and Credits

(c) naitokz, some rights reserved (CC BY-ND), http://www.flickr.com/photos/70925079@N00/1770259813
(c) Larry Snyder, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by Larry Snyder
Internet Archive Book Images, no known copyright restrictions (public domain), http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dictionnaire_pittoresque_d%27histoire_naturelle_et_des_ph%C3%A9nom%C3%A8nes_de_la_nature_(1838)_(14594626920).jpg
(c) Stefan.lefnaer, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Phytolacca_americana_sl12.jpg
(c) Wikipedia, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phytolacca_americana
(c) bkmertz, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)
Adapted by bkmertz from a work by (c) Wikipedia, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phytolacca_americana

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