Stalking the Wild Pokeberry

[LeSaMilano]

wow, 2007 seems lightyears ago.

Happy New Year Kate, wishing you a fantastic year in 2011. XX 

[mrslewis98]

These are an absolute no-no for children and pets. They are just too tempting and too poisonous.

[woosteria]

Agreed!!! One of the earlier comments indicated the pokeberries had possible been eaten by children, but to my knowledge, birds are the only animals that aren't poisoned by these berries. Thanks for your comment!

[messabout1]

We made dye and ink from mashed up polk berries but we were told not to eat them

[woosteria]

That's what I've read too...the toxin is found in the berries as well as the rest of the plant, and should not be eaten. However, LordTempist (comments above) says that he ate a few of them as a child without suffering adverse reaction, which is interesting.

[LordTempist]

Cool:) When I was a kid my friends and I would eat these in a wild lil patch of woods in an abandoned space in town. A house had burned down there a decade before and only the foundation remained of it, all overgrown with weeds and sucker trees.

[woosteria]

Sounds like exactly the kind of place where this plant loves to grow! I'm interested that you ate the berries as a kid. Any remembrance of bad tummy aches afterward? From what I've read, the berries are supposed to contain a chemical that the human digestive tract doesn't care much for!

[LordTempist]

We ate everything back then:)

[LordTempist]

I don't remember getting sick, but we didn't eat many of them. Just lucky I guess:)

[woosteria]

Or, perhaps the Lordliness factor made you immune to such maladies, even in your youth!

[LordTempist]

I wish:) I went back and looked more closely at the berries in your video and they look exactly like the ones we ate. I even remember we called them "grapes". Kids:)

[woosteria]

Do you remember if they tasted sweet?

[LordTempist]

Taste memories are supposed to be the longest lasting. I think they were, in which case these likely were not the same berries. Cool:)

[woosteria]

I'm guessing the really ripe berries would be quite sweet, because the birds go absolutely crazy for them in late summer/fall. And maybe most of the toxicity is lost in the ripening process?

[LordTempist]

Good point:) They did practically burst when we plucked them off. I remember my fingers all purpely from juice. It's amazing that I am recalling all this from summer days when I was about 7 years old. Such a carefree time.

[woosteria]

It's nice to be reminded of those lovely times! I was a wild plant grazer in those days too, in fact "Stalking the Wild Asparagus" was my outdoor bible!

[LordTempist]

Ah Cool! My mom used to take me out into the country to wade in grass in the ditches and pick wild asparagus:) She knew all the good spots west of our small town in Iowa:)

[woosteria]

Amazing how those memories never really fade. I grew up in PA and spent tons of time with sisters and friends looking for for berries, fossils, birds, animal tracks, whatever, in our woods! Thinking back on it now, it was a really great world to grow up in.

[pinklantana]

I think they are lovely. I always say a weed is just an unwanted plant. So if you like it there, it's not a weed. :)

There is another variety of this, that I can't recall the name right now. But it's not considered a 'weed' by most, and it has a chocolate variety too! :)

[woosteria]

They are beautiful plants, with almost a tropical look about them. I didn't know about the darker variety, but imagine there probably is quite a bit of variation, since pokeberry seems to grow just about everywhere!

[blackturtleus]

You note that this video is not as clear as the original. I notice that quality is often lost when youtube encodes them as FLV files. I guess it saves space, but with plants it's nice to have the full quality. Nice video all the same!

[woosteria]

Degradation of quality due to YT encoding seems to be a problem for a lot of folks, especially for those with much better cameras than mine. I really love to see the detail of plants, and it's frustrating to have the image appear fuzzy in the vid!

[8rf]

true permaculture. :)

[woosteria]

LOL Yeh, can't get rid of it! The birds do such a good job of spreading the seeds around!

[HeidiSaid]

I actually have intact pokeberries in bear scat that I have kept in my freezer... for the 'hike video mentioned before. !

[woosteria]

I wonder if that bear got a bit ill from the dining experience! I read somewhere that some bird enthusiasts freeze the berries and then feed them to the birds later in the fall/winter months.

[DieselBodine]

I was ripping up Pokeweed from my fence today and the berries stained my hands red. I have yet to eat the young shoots, but I hear they're tasty. That's a very nice wooded erea you have! 8-)

[woosteria]

Hey Scott, if you're planning on dining on the young leaves, make sure you boil them well AT LEAST TWICE (three times is better) with fresh water each time! A potent phytotoxin in all parts of the pokeberry plant is very poisonous to humans and other mammals. Personally, I'd rather boil up a good batch of Swiss Chard and dine worry-free!!

Darn those stains anyway! Not the easiest to remove from clothing either!

[DieselBodine]

Thanks for the tip, Kate. I'm curious to what it tastes like!

[woosteria]

well, if you insist, but just a taste okay?!

[dabiribd]

So beautiful.

Thank you

[woosteria]

Thank you Ben...lots of stuff growing wild and fancy-free around my house!

[ablheza]

That´s a nice backyard!! :)

[woosteria]

Thanks, I like it!

[LeSaMilano]

a HA! I've seen them, but never knew what they were called. The video sort of looked like it was in 3D.

Is that's your property? Love the brids and bugs and crunching under foot. I could almost smell the fresh air, except there's a big deisel truck idling outside my window! Thanks for showing me the pokes! :)

Lesleyxx

[woosteria]

LOL...Can you feel the mosquitos biting too???

This is a semi-cleared area nextdoor to the wooded section of our property. Pokeweed prefers to grow along woods edge, and it can take over a clearing very quickly. But that's okay, the birds love it so much, and I don't mind letting it grow there.