TheMondayGarden.com

Originally reprinted from "The Monday Garden"

issue 70, July 27, 2003,

This article has been updated and replaced by Issue 132. There’s lots of new pictures but I still haven’t found a recipe for pokeberry wine. If you have one, lots of people are looking for it, so please post a comment.

Thanks for all your encouraging comments on the original article; I hope you enjoy the new pictures.

Sue

What the readers said:

Very nice!! Interesting to say the least. I love the way the sun shine was captured through the leaves. Lin (NY)

We took a drive to the Sound, showing a friend from Austria … We passed that beautiful garden … walked over to look … and stopped by a pokeberry plant. My friend asked me what it was - I said "I have no idea, but I know someone who would!" And then there this is this afternoon! Marc (CT)

The Monday Garden, October 3, , 2004, Issue 132

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The “rule of thumb” for edibility of native berries is: white: never; red: sometimes: blue and purple: usually, and black: almost always. However, pokeberry disproves the rule – its ripe berries are purple-black but it’s extremely dangerous to mammals. Pokeberry (Phytolacca Americana) is a handsome, native perennial of Northeast North America that has spread south and west, perhaps as far as Mexico (said to be hardy Zones 2-11).

picture: green pokeberry fruit, Bedford Street, Stamford, CT August 2004

At home in North America, pokeberry stands up to the foreign competition, such as mugwort, Mugwort without crowding out other native plants. In other countries and off the USA mainland (e.g. Hawaii), pokeberry sometimes shows up on the invasive plant lists. Hard to think of our natives as being pollution in other countries.