Below a nice little stand of pokeweed, which is a native plant. It can grow taller than a person, and has an extensive taproot. (You probably don't want these growing in your yard.)
Most people have seen this plant before, and remember the trademark red-purple stems, but not always the name.
Pokeweed is poisonous, but some people do pick and eat the tender young leaves after following a careful cooking procedure. The term for this dish is poke sallet - but I could not find a satisfactory etymological source for this term. The leaves have been canned and sold commercially. However, you should be very careful about consuming this plant. It is very toxic.
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| Pokeweed - beautiful but poisonous! |
Below you can see the darker berries, which have been used to make temporary ink. I, myself, used to crush them up and paint my face with them as a child, when playing in the woods.
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| Birds may eat the berries, but people should not! |
Pokeweed is sometimes called "skoke berry" and this is said to come from an Algonquian word, meaning "red". The scientific name, Phytolacca americana, also refers to its color. The first part, "phyto", comes from a Greek word meaning plant, and the second part, "lacca" comes from a Latin word meaning red dye.
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