If a nice-looking plant could attract scads of birds, make a great mess of greens, treat cancer, AIDS, herpes, bad breath and more, and revolutionize the solar energy industry on the side, wouldn’t you want it in your backyard?
All of these claims and more have been made for the American Pokeweed (Phytolacca americana), an imposing perennial common in disturbed, fallow and edge areas, routinely growing taller than 6-8 feet, with large, oblong leaves and reddish stems at maturity. It’s also known as poke root, poke salad (or poke sallet), poke berry, poke, inkberry, cancer root, American nightshade, pigeon berry and other names. The starring feature of Pokeweed is the flower cluster, which can host flowers, immature green berries and mature, shiny red berries all on the same clump, and there are many clumps per plant, flowering from May on into the fall. It dies back to its very large taproot each winter and re-emerges each spring. It is very insistent about that.
American Pokeweed (Phytolacca americana)
With all this going for it, what’s not to like? Well, for one thing, it’s poisonous. For another, it’s persistent and somewhat aggressive and difficult to eradicate. Pokeweed has its passionate defenders, implacable enemies, and some in between, who might wish it wasn’t there, but have no qualms about using it for its good qualities. We have several healthy specimens in our yard, mostly around the edges in the fence or up against the house, and we appreciate it because birds find it irresistible. We never planted it. It showed up on its own, probably from the hard little seeds passing through a bird and being deposited with a handy little packet of fertilizer. It seems to generate a couple more plants each year, and we will soon have to control its spread. We pull it or chop it in places where we don’t want it, but this might be only semi-effective, since it will try to come back from the root each spring. There are chemical treatments, if you’re really desperate, including glyphosate. At least one online gardeners’ forum has had a lively debate on the merits of this plant in gardens and its control.
Pokeweed is one of the signature edible native plants of America, with a strong role in Native-American, African-American and Southern cultures and cuisines. The key is caution. Young leaves and stems in the spring, before any red has crept into them, are harvested by legions of foragers and boiled in at least two changes of water, discarding the water afterwards. Some, in Southern style, saute the greens with bacon drippings and crumbles, alone or mixed with other wild greens. Some also cook the young stems like asparagus, to which their flavor is compared, or cut them into rounds, like okra, coating them with cornmeal and frying them. Some just saute them in butter, with salt and pepper. They are sometimes used in making pickles. Just remember to blanch them in water first! Twice!
Never eat the roots! Never. Too bad, too, because they’re big and juicy.
The toxins in Pokeweed, depending on what source you’re working from, range from deadly to mild. They are usually concentrated in the roots, berries and seeds and include an alkaloid (phytolaccine), a resin (phytolaccatoxin), and a saponin (phytolaccigenin). Their effects can range from embarrassing to very nasty, including diarrhea, vomiting, internal bleeding, rapid heartbeat, convulsions, and much more, up to and including death. Blanching in changes of water eliminates most of the toxins from young leaves and stems, but caution is called for. Also, since the berries are a very tempting looking bright red, you might want to think twice about having this plant in places frequented by young children, because I remember what I was like as a kid.
Flowers, immature and mature berries on one cluster
Tempting looking pokeberries. Look, but don’t eat! Leave them for the birds.
Aside from its decorative and culinary qualities , Pokeweed is useful for establishing quail habitat, since quail love the berries (birds are not affected by the toxins), and it also forms a nice shady refuge for them. It is good for attracting pollinating insects to gardens.
Syrphid fly on Pokeweed flower
It has been used for inks and dyes (here’s how you can make your own!), making a beautiful red color, and is being studied for potential treatments for cancer and various viral diseases, among other ailments. Some folks still swear by eating a small number of berries to prevent arthritis, but you didn’t hear that from me. Keep in mind that online sources of medical information often urge strong caution in using Pokeweed medicinally, or simply say “Don’t do it.”
It has even inspired a song or two along the way. Who could forget Poke Salad Annie?
One of its newest uses is in the field of solar energy generation. It seems a red dye made from the mature berries can be used to coat fiber-based solar cells, increasing their efficiency in converting sunlight into electricity. Who knew?
We have it in our yard. We’re keeping it. Like all things, it has pluses and minuses, but, on average, we think it’s worthwhile having around. Our birds agree, and if I ever get the money to put up solar cells on the roof, I’ll be squeezing a bunch of berries and painting the juice on them. Or however they do that…..
I loved your narrative about poke weed. It is a much more enjoyable read than most botanical guides.
Thanks, Tom! I first tried pokeweed when I lived in Carbondale. I survived.
Does anyone use extracts from pokeweed as a herbicide to keep other fence-line-growers under control?
I just noticed that the areas around pokes that grow up along fences are clear of all other weeds.
Hi Steve. I have never heard of this and neither has Nadia. In our yard we have lots of plants growing around pokeweed, including tomatoes that are producing fruits. I suspect that your pokeweeds might just be outcompeting the other vegetation.
I can second what he’s saying. I cut and painted all the honeysuckle on my acre. Afterwards I got an explosion of garlic mustard :(. The garlic mustard exploded everywhere EXCEPT where there was enough sunlight for pokeweed to grow. In the areas with pokeweed… no garlic mustard. In my case, I believe the pokeweed is so thick that it shades out the garlic mustard rosettes. My strategy is to let the pokeweed drown out the garlic mustard until I have the garlic mustard controlled everywhere else. Then I’ll thin the pokeberry to provide room for other natives. I think I’ll do a little test this year and dig up a pokeweed tuber and spread it around some garlic mustard rosettes and see what happens. I’d be very interested in finding an allelopathic answer to garlic mustard. My guess tho is that pokeweed provides such dense shade that it drowns out most of what grows around it.
Good information! Thanks for commenting and please keep us informed.
You may want to look into the nutritional and medicinal properties of garlic mustard! That stuff is amazing. I’d rather have it than poke.
Hello,
Why do you cut down the honeysuckle? It’s so yummy! I’ve never heard anyone say they didn’t want it. Just curious.
Have a great day!
Because Japanese bush honeysuckle is a very aggressive invasive species that can choke out lots of natives in the forest understory. Some people like it becuase it has pretty flowers and berries and smells nice, but it is incredibly destructive to native ecosystems. If we find it in our yard, it’s history.
I am curious where you live. Where I live in Virginia, honeysuckle can overwhelm almost anything else. It is fine if you don’t want to grow anything particular.
Do you know that the root of poke boiled in water for 25 min and stored in a jar in the fridge will cure poison Ivy and poison oak. I use it and my stepdad used it on a woman who had the worse case of poison oak, I had ever seen in my life. You must rub it into where the poison oak or Ivy has made the red rash on you , It will burn a lot but will start to heal in a few days !
Interesting! I can’t vouch for this (or recommend it), because I have never heard of it before, but I thank you for passing it on and for reading!
I *can* vouch for it. When I was fifteen I got the worse case of poison ivy one can ever imagine. Upper legs, butt and some other rather sensitive areas. I had large patches of scabs everywhere I had constantly scratched. A neighbor told me about boiling poke root, then empty the liquid (about a gallon) into a bathtub with about six inches of water in it. Sit in the water for ten-fifteen minutes a day and make sure all the poison ivy gets a bath in the mixture. I did that for a couple of days and within three days the poison ivy was dried up and ::gone::!
Wish I’d heard this as an outdoorsy kid growing up on the farm! I got poison ivy year round, not realizing the oil was on the dog, cat, pony, chickens, firewood, rocks and dirt! We tried every other home remedy without success
Not surprising since the root is loaded with powerful anti-inflammatory compounds. In fact, an old remedy for arthritis among elderly Southern ladies is to boil the root in some lard for making a most effective liniment that can be rubbed into aching joints. I suppose you could also substitute coconut oil instead of the lard to give it a wonderful coconut smell.
I have sever arthritis in my hands and I work with them,
What do you know about the anti-inflammatory compounds vs. the poison issue?
Tinctures of poke root are used by the drop, not dropperful for arthritis. The ripe berries are also used by swallowing whole, the seed contains the poison but passes through. Start with one berry and work your way up in doseage and back down. It is very powerful medicine and must be respected and used properly. Look up The Southern Herbalist on youtube, FB and @.com. The amount we dont know about the medicinal plants around us is huge.
Been using it for poison oak for 25 years- just put it on my son who is having a bad outbreak- caution though it itches like crazy and raises white blisters on the skin that clears up minutes later- one good dose and the itch is gone for good
I have posion ivy on my face. How would you put Polk root on your face & not get it in your eyes?
I’m not sure what you mean, but if you want to apply poke as an antidote to poison ivy, I would NOT do it. I can’t find any information that it is effective, and some sources claim poke can actually cause a poison ivy-like reaction. If you mean specifically the root of the pokeweed plant, I wouldn’t touch it with a ten foot pole, without expert medical guidance. The root is the most toxic part of the plant and would be most likely to cause a bad reaction. Sorry about the poison ivy exposure and best of luck in treating it, but poke would be at the bottom of my list of things to try!
Jewelweed is a natural antidote for poison ivy and its not poisonous. It normally grows in the same area as poison ivy. 🙂
I have heard this, too.
Jewel weed is a small 1′-4′ plant with hollow stalk that grow in wet soils (around streams, lakes, very shady yards). They have opposing leaf pairs and when dipped under water the underside of the leaves appear to look like silver or mercury (the hair like projections on the underside trap air and form a leaf sized mini-bubble. Hence the name “jewel weed”
I don’t know why this would be considered spam so I’m gonna try again..
I don’t think it’s an herbicide but it is a fungicide.. It also helps stop bleeding scratches; promotes healing; kills ringworm and skin cancer; shrinks sebaceous cysts, warts, raised/hairy moles and skin tags; smoothes bumpy skin.. I use the above-ground parts of the plant, especially the red parts.. In a saucepan, I add just enough water to cover the plant material..Cover with a lid, bring to a boil and simmer for half an hour.. Remove from heat and allow to cool, then strain and bottle.. I prefer to use it from a dropper.. spread it lightly to break the surface tension then allow to air dry.. The stuff stinks slightly but it works great.. I’ve been using it for about ten years and several of my family and friends do as well..
Hello, I am not sure if you are still there as I have no idea when this article was written. Were you referring cooking leaves, berry and the red stems but mostly the red stems? Also, I am a little confused with the dropper bottle (I get that) but then it seems that you are putting it on a cookie sheet or something to dry it into a powder. I have some cancer spot on my skin and would love to try.
I have tons of weeds growing around my pokeweed.
I’m using boiled poke weed root juice right now on a brown recluse bite. The guy doctors send you to-a preacher, part Cherokee, promises me it will heal it. Vanderbilt gave me steroids and said I’d probably get an infection and plastic surgery… Then charged me a lot of money. Luckily, it’s spring, and I can try poke weed root free.
Well, Diane, don’t keep us in the dark on this one. Let us know how it works out. And good luck.
I used an old remedy of garlic and fresh lemon juice and made a paste and put it on my brown recluse bite, immediately after the bite…the next day I noticed a hair coming out of the bite which was a hard area about the size of a quarter on my chest. I pulled out the hair…I then continued to put the paste on for a few days and then changed to putting lavender oil on the area. It took a few weeks to completely disappear, but I had no scaring whatsoever.
I had never heard this from anyone else before about the hair. I am just wondering if brown recluse spiders inject a hair into the bite which then begins to fester and cause the ugly ulceration that you see on most brown recluse bites…
could it not have been an ingrown hair?
That’s awesome information, I bet it would work on methicillin-resistant bacteria as well.
And ebola too of course.
And Coronavirus
How did your spider bite come out?
Tony, keep reading down in the comments section. I emailed her and she gave us an update a while back.
I wonder what American Pokeweed was doing in the cobbled streets of Dragor? It’s a small harbour town on the Danish coast near to Copenhagen. It was covered in bunches of glossy black berries in August, when I was there on holiday.
Interesting. A quick Google search turned up Pokeweed self-seeding in Britain. It is listed as naturalized there, species Phytolacca acinosa or Indian Pokeweed. If it’s turned up in England, it’s not too big a stretch to suppose that birds may have spread its seeds to Denmark and elsewhere in northern Europe.
Thanks for the info and for reading.
P.S. A little more digging found a reference that this species is listed in Bornholm, Denmark!
Phytolacca americana
not on the List of invasive species in Europe
Pokeweed is a garden plant in Denmark
Phytolacca acinosa was the species I found for parts of the UK and Europe. Is American Pokeweed grown in Danish gardens or this other species? Thanks for reading and commenting.
Hi, very interesting reading all the comments on here.
I have one large specimen of this plant growing in my garden. I’m not sure of the variety as the berries look completely different from the picture at the top of the page. Mine has tight packed black berries either side of a main stem where the flower spike had been. The berries are really attractive and each one looks a tiny pumpkin, segmented all around.
I have no idea where this plant came from, it just appeared one spring about five or six years ago. It has not grown much bigger than it did in its first year and has not spread anywhere else in the garden. We have noticed that the white frothy flowers attract bees, hover flies and some butterflies but once the flowers are finished nothing seems to find it attractive. It bears masses of berries but we’ve never seen any type of bird eating them. Even the grey squirrels, who will normally try anything, never go near them.
I love this plant and after all this time have only just found out what it’s called, following sending photos to an online plant identification site. I’m intrigued to discover its history and uses on your very interesting forum. My husband wants to chop it down but if and until it starts making a nuisance of itself it can have a stay of execution!
I understand that one of your contributors saw it in Denmark and I was told by the lady who identified it for me that it is naturalised in Portugal. You may be interested to know that I live in cold damp South Wales in the UK. I have never seen this plant growing anywhere else in this area. Our specimen is looking rather poorly now that we’ve had a frost or two but I will welcome it back next spring with a new respect!
Thanks very much for the international update! Do you have a picture of the berries that you could share? I’m curious, since you said they looked very different. And thanks also for reading!
Sidenote: Can anyone verify that Diane is still alive and kicking? This past summer, my fiance and I lived at a cottage in the Catskills, and our landlords told us the pokeberries were “elderberries.” Luckily, we had the good sense to research the berries first, since my fiance (who’s from England) said they didn’t look anything like the elderberries in England… we were horrified when we found out what it really was, since we’d been harvesting the berries… PLEASE always use caution with this plant!
Not sure, Kat, since she never came back with an update. Maybe I’ll email her and ask. Recluse bites are generally non-fatal, but can be terribly painful and disfiguring. I am very curious about whether the pokeweed treatment actually helped.
Thanks for reading and commenting!
Update: Diane is alive and kicking! Here is her reply about the pokeweed remedy for brown recluse bites. Note that “Nadia’s Backyard” only passes on information—we don’t recommend, endorse, advocate, etc., etc., etc., ANY treatment without checking with your doctor and doing lots of research.
“Hi! The pokeweed root remedy came from the native Americans. It’s being studied for skin cancer and other poisons.
One year later exactly from my brown recluse bite, there’s a scar, but doctors cannot believe how it healed. I have specialists and issues; they know me as a hot mess! The little kids I teach always come to see the preserved spider and my arm during science.
Pokeweed root helped! I never got a big hole or had nasty dr drilling. It got somewhat yucky, but not like so many people’s bites.
How I did it:
I did use bentonite clay after I figured out it was a recluse. Didn’t have charcoal.
I boiled the pokeweed roots after cleaning, soaked gauze in the “juice”, wrapped the swollen parts of my arm in that and wrapped it after I gently scuffed the bite with a soaked cloth. My arm was in a sling prior, because the venom made it look like I had arm measles when moving it. Anyway, the soaked gauze helped with pain. I used this gauze at night for about two weeks, refrigerating the left-overs and making more as needed. During the day, I tried to let it air and had a friend make a special root powder antibiotic type salve. (I’d have to ask for the recipe but remember camphor and goldenseal.) If I had to do it again, I would immediately get charcoal caps emptied into it, take benedryl, then start the process and not even bother with Vanderbilt ER, who was of NO help with their 2 cortisone tablets. For people who don’t know American Pokeweed (we have loads in TN!), you can now get root powder at mountain rose herbs.
By the way, now is the time of year spiders are out, so be aware!”
I just saw this and so very happy Diane responded. Interesting.
I came by this site b/c we just bought a small place in the country in TN. The previous owner was bitten by a recluse twice (said our new neighbor)
But I have TONS of this pokeweed growing on the property and I found your site when I was trying to find out more about it.
Thanks
I have been eating all parts of the poke since I was a toddler.. 50 years ago I started cooking young leaves all summer and quit boiling it more than once.. 40 years my mother married an Apache who turned us on to deep frying the stems.. He also taught us to peel all of the red/purple off since that is where the alkaloids are.. I am now 74 and eat poke year round.. I cultivate it in my garden and freeze it for winter.. No need to parboil just chop, bag and freeze..
Oh my gosh!
So glad ti hear you say THAT!
I first tried eating a young leaf or two, and one berry at a time, when I read that “poison” was defined as “nausea and diarrhea!”
Now I regularly add both to my salad!
FYI … I’ve eaten as many as twenty berries at once.
Cool, as long as you remember that people react differently. I had stomach aches twice after eating poke without double boiling. Nothing major, but some folks may have worse experiences. Glad you’re immune. Enjoy!
Are other animals, such as cats, dogs immune to the toxicity of the berries, roots, et al?
Thanks,
Zoe
This is what I found: “Cattle and sheep are the most susceptible species but poisoning occasionally occurs in horses, goats, and pigs. Animals may feed on poke plants, especially in the spring, when the plants are succulent. Where grass is short, the animals may browse so close as to get the top parts of the poke roots. Unless green herbage is very scarce later in the summer, animals will avoid the tops and berries.” Source: http://www.library.illinois.edu/vex/toxic/poke/poke.htm. Here’s another: “Poisonous to: Cats, Dogs, Horses, Cows
Common signs to watch for:
Drooling
Vomiting
Inappetance/refusal of food
Diarrhea
Possible tremors
Hypotension
All parts of this perennial contain saponins and oxalates which cause severe gastrointestinal irritation. Excessive salivation, vomiting, inappetance/refusal of food, diarrhea, possible tremors, and a drop in blood pressure may occur. The berries are generally not known for being very poisonous, and often may pass through the gastrointestinal tract intact (without being broken down).” Source: http://www.petpoisonhelpline.com/poison/pokeweed/
So the answer is no, they are not immune. I can’t imagine a dog or cat eating pokeweed, but you never know! Thanks for reading!
How about a cat eating a bird that had eaten the berries? I just discovered one of our outdoor cats eating a mockingbird that had a lot of purple mixed in with the viscera, and I’d bet it was eating from one of the few pokeweeds I haven’t eradicated.
Hmmmm….never heard of this one. My first impulse is to say, “Don’t worry.” Anyone else have any idea?
lots of it in my backyard in north jersey..i have toddlers so glad i looked it up cuz i wouldnt have thought it was that poisonous so its gotta go. i see it has many uses tho unfortunately i gotta get this outta my yard asap.
The berries I hear is poison but I have been eating fried pokeweed since 1975. I do not boil the leaves before I eat them. I eat the stalk and leaves when very young. I use bacon grease and I roll the leaves and stalk in flour and eat it. I keep seeing comments that it is very poison, the whole plant. Well I must be immune to it because I eat it every spring. Matter of fact, I dug up some roots and hope to have my own pokeweed garden.
Robins feast on the berries in the Spring. Perhaps the berries lose some toxicity over the (northern US) winter?
Do they attract insects like Mosquitos? I didn’t see anything about insects in here.
Hi Jessica. I’m not aware that pokeweed or any other native plant attracts mosquitoes, but they do attract good pollinators like bees and pollinating flies. To control mosquitoes keep open water under control, like water in bird baths or plant dishes. Look for “wrigglers” every couple of days—they are probably mosquito larvae. Dump out the water and replace it with fresh water. But you probably knew this already.
I just googled this poke salad which I have ate all of my life I am 52 my best recipe is to boil over t just a couple of times then put it a cast iron skillet with some bacon grease and plenty of eggs and left over rice and season to your liking what a treat I still enjoy this meal to day but like greens I’d does take quite a bit its name poke comes from the name of poke cause you used poke which is a sack you know a poke sack I remember so well my mother would tell me to go get a poke sack lol I was raised like the show the Walton’s remember the show from the 1970 as most of you who have read this article on this plant we lived on and ate off the land I didn’t know we we ever poor as I nev r wend with out my grandma canned and pickled every thing and buchtered all our meat I eat better than most of others of those times one day I wish to write a book of those days gone by which when I reminisce it put a great big smile on my face ear to ear cutting hay laying in the hay loft and drinking freash milk which we owned a dairy farm wel I guess this enough lol for nowor I could go on for hours kids these days think its was such a hard life not to me I enjoyed every day well letter I hope you all enjoyed reminiscing with me and Randy glad to read your article but m reason how I came across your article was I am do some research on ways of stacking small plaints that don’t require a wide area nor a lot of head room in which to grown which would have require as many acreage I have my devised designed which would allow me to reclaim the would and reuse the would with out any fertilizer by knowing what plaints need I know that which plants and weed and other organic materials would make the channel value that the plants would need I plan on making prototype which would allow me me to grow beets for example purposes five acres of beets on just half of a arces with out bringing in soil all my soil I will make my on soil even having excess soil I know this has nothing to do with your article but I am just exside in being able to grow more and using less acres and no fertilizer or any chemicals and way less the labor and back bending which will decrease labor and the cost of preparing the field well talked to much I would really like to share the ideal with others who may be interested please fill free to email wdcharles63@gmail.com thanks for your time
Thanks for the information, William! My mistake was not boiling the poke a couple times before eating it, and it gave me a little stomach ache. I knew better, but I got lazy. We are trying to grow food in our little backyard now, but poke is already there. I need to use it more and better. We also have lamb’s quarters, stinging nettle and cup plant, which all give good greens (make sure you boil the nettle first!). \
Please let us know of your other native food plants. We would like to hear from you.
No offense to anybody, but I never boil through two waters, I just fry it in bacon grease with a little water…I make small servings, freeze in snack bags. I had a friend with colon cancer…while sitting at dr. Office waiting on chemo…an old man approached with a recipe, it was poke root tea. He told her two tablespoons a week had kept him going for twenty years. There has to be something to it, so I eat small amounts…not boiled through two waters. Dearly love it with fried potatoes and corn bread…
Well, Kathy, nothing offensive in that post. You keep doing what works for you! Thanks for reading!
My crazy aunt introduced poke salad to me when I was a kid. She fried the leaves with bacon grease –tasted somewhat like mustard greens. Goes good as a side dish with pinto beans and cornbread. I have a patch just shooting out on the corner of my property and searched to see what others are saying. Think I’ll try some of the uses identified here.
You are so right Kathy, I never boil it. If it was poison, boiling it wouldn’t take out the poison. I fix mine rolled in flour and use bacon grease to fry and let it get crispy. Been eating it since 1975, so that is 45 years.
Are you talkin about young leaves or mature leaves?
I eat poke salad throughout the year, even with the stems purple. I was raised like that and continue to do it. I only eat the smaller leaves and always cut out the stem that runs down the center of it, though. And, I boil and drain at least twice. Never got sick. As a kid though I loved “accidentally” coloring my clothes with the berries when I played outside. 🙂
That boiling and draining part seems to be the key.
Thanks for the informatin!!
Yesterday I forgot to put on gloves while harvesting some poke berries for making a dye. (Used a scissors but I did touch berries & stems in process ) I must have rubbed or itched the outer part of my eye. I cleaned my eye by blinking in warm water a few hours later when I felt eye issues. I thought sleep might help. But now my eye is Very puffy on top and Very swollen underneath. Any suggestions to help?
Never heard of this, and I can’t really help. Are you sure it was the poke that did this? Sorry, and I hope you feel better.
I also eat poke year round, freeze it for winter.. I eat all sizes of leaves and tender stems.. I never boil more than once.. My Apache stepdad taught me to strip all of the ”red” from it and batter and fry stems and leaves.. That’s the way I like it best.. I tie-dyed an outfit with the berries very pretty but it’s not very colorfast..
Phytolacca:
This is listed as one ingredient on product I have used during a weight loss effort. Does anyone have knowledge of this used for weightloss. If so, would it be purchased in 6x, or 12x dosages? Thanks for reply
Cindy, I have heard that this plant is sometimes used to stimulate weight loss, but remember that all parts of this plant are toxic. I cannot recommend it for any medicinal purpose. We keep it for the birds to eat and they love it, seemingly being immune to the poisons in the plant. People who eat the leaves as a vegetable stress boiling the them in two to three changes of water to help get rid of the toxins. Thanks for reading!
I have never boiled mine. I don’t think you could boil poison out of anything.
That is not necessarily true. If the “poison” can be dissolved in water, it can be removed or reduced by boiling in water changes. When I didn’t do this, I have experienced stomach aches. If you are not sensitive to this toxin, good for you. It’s not true for everybody. Thanks for the comment.
As a college trained former commercial diver, I can identify a poison that is broken down by heat alone: Stingray venom. If Stung by a Stingray. run Hot tapwater over the Sting site. You will get inmediate relief, though you may need to treat the Sting with Hot water for 30 minutes for permenant relief.
My dad’s grandmother was native american and he said if he was able to visit her before school started she would have him eat this plant. Every time he did he did not get sick that school year (flu, colds, etc). His mother would never cook it for the kids due to the side effects, but she used it to kill rodents. With that being said, I have always been interested and fearful of trying it. I need to know how to cook it right the first time. This is not a plant I want to cook using the trial and error method.
Great story, Teresa! The safest thing to do with pokeweed is to boil the young leaves in two or three changes of water. This should remove the toxic portion of the leaves. I don’t know how this affects the nutritional value, but I suspect it can’t be good for retaining good vitamins and minerals, but it’s better than getting sick. I have noticed mild stomach upset on two or three occasions when I have eaten pokeweed boiled only once. Never, ever eat the roots! There should be lots of cooking instructions online for this plant, because it has been a staple in some parts of the country historically. Good luck and thanks for reading!
I’ve never heard of it as a rodent killer.. Do you know how it was used.?
I’ve been eating it all of my life.. As an adult, I quit boiling it more than once.. On advice from my Apahe stepdad, I peel all of the red from the stems and leaves.. For the past 40 or 50 years I have been eating all above-ground parts of the plant with no side effects..
I grew up eating poke and wild mushrooms. My Mom , nor have I ever boiled them twice before eating. Put them in a pan boil eat, or put bacon grease in skillet with diced onions, add fresh picked washed poke. When it has sufficiently wilted down eat. I am now 56 and still alive. I knew a lady who ate one poke berry a day for arthritis and I have eaten one berry, it did not taste good so I never ate another one.
Thanks for the feedback, Vicki. I believe you, but I can tell you that I have had mild stomach systems more than once after eating poke leaves cooked the way you describe. I suspect that individuals react differently. You’re lucky!
I’m happy so many people have benefited from pokeweed.after mistaking it for giant warthog, I tried to cut it down and possible something was released into the air.I ended up twice in the er- never ate it or touched it without gloves.it only affected my head.swelled one eye completely shut and I was in trouble breathing.Iit laser about three weeks even after two courses of iv steroids.I am highly allegic (er time) to poison ivy, so maybe I’m more susceptible, but I looked like a monster and when my breathing became labored,it was time to return to er.they dismissed it as poison ivy though there was not a bit of itching and it was confined to my face and lungs (as far as I know).There is always an exception to most things,just putting this out there.
Wow! Sorry that happened to you! I’ve never heard of pokeweed having this kind of effect on anybody before. It’s possible that it actually was poison ivy or something else that got you, but it’s good to know that some people might be to be extra cautious. Thanks for the heads up.
May have been stinging nettle that made you react.
It could be that the plant actually was giant hogweed which could be what caused your problems. Giant hogweed causes extreme photo sensitivity which can lead to burns and some horrific blisters. In some cases children who got the sap near their eyes were actually blinded.
Thanks, Dilys. I’ve never heard of this, but I think I’ll check it out.
Dilys: Except that photo sensitivity, burns, and blisters were none of the symptoms Nancy had, she mentioned serious trouble breathing and her eye swelled shut, so your comment is irrelevant to her experience. :O)
Great info about Phytolacca americana. I’m in northern Portugal and my backyard has lots of it. We call it tintureira for its dye-related atributes. I was considering giving the berrys to chickens. I supose that if quail can eat them without problems, with chickens won’t be diferent, right?
I am not aware that there is any problem with chickens eating these berries, although they are not recommended for human consumption. Many wild birds eat and love them. Let us know how it works, and thank you for reading!
Thanks to all for the insightful posts on Pokeweed. We had two plants pop up this year on opposite sides of the garden. One got yanked out early in the season, as it was growing in a path. The other is at least 6′ tall and full of flowers and berries. I’m tempted to try a berry, or investigate the tea, as I had colon cancer 5 years ago (runs in our family). I will definitely add this beauty to my Garden Picture collection.
Thanks again!!
Thanks for all this info. I had no idea what I have in my yard. It’s been there for four years and is spreading. I’m allergic to many things. I think I will leave it alone. Your site was very informative.
Thanks, Sue! We appreciate your comments.
does anybody know about these green caterpillars I keep finding on my pokeweed? I’d love to know what they are called 😸
I haven’t seen them, but I’ll keep my eyes open. Anybody else have any ideas?
Yes it attracts a certain moth. Which I read about in a previous article from “out my backdoor”
Hi there! I was glad to find your post. I let pokeweed grow really tall for the birds this year, but now it is already wilting and dying back. It seems kind of early, because even though it’s September, it’s still getting up to 95 degrees in the afternoon here (Georgia)! Do you know if it’s normal for it to be dying like this already?
Ours is just starting to wilt a bit here in central Missouri. I don’t know all the factors that go into triggering a dieback of this plant, but we have had a wetter than normal summer and quite warm weather. I suspect its photoperiod, temperature, rainfall and other factors all working together. I’m sure your birds appreciate it anyway!! Thanks for reading and commenting!
Thanks for your reply! that makes me feel better.:) We went muscadine picking today and I paid more attention while we were out “in the country.” I saw lots of others wilting away too! There was ONE which was in amazing shape. It was in the shade! So I guess the full sun might kill it off faster. That other one wasn’t very big at all, so I guess the sun-shade thing is a bit of a trade off for the plant. the big one was much nicer! it could hold lots of birds.:)
Ive been researching this berry for a while, and I was wondering if the berries could be refined into a juice.
I’m sure it can be done, but I’ve never heard of it. I expect juice can be made from pretty much any berry or fruit. Just curious—what would you do with this juice? Thanks for reading and commenting.
My son and I go on nature walks every day for his home-schooling. We came across this plant and wondered if it was poisonous. We always draw something new and then come home to research it. Your article was so informative and amusing. My son liked the music video reference about Poke weed Annie. Thank you.
Thank you!
I think the song I’m familiar with is called “poke salad Annie”
Yeah! There’s a link to it in the post!
I live in new Hampshire I have these berries which I thought were elderberries. Come to find out I have been told they are poke berries. They said they are poison to us. Not sure if a state makes a difference on these berries but I was told not to pick or eat them.
If they are actually pokeberries, I don’t recommend eating them. Some people do, but others can have bad reactions. To me, it’s not worth it. Thanks for reading and commenting, Cindy.
My father-in-law suffered from skin cancer due to constant exposure to creosote at a post and cross-tie plant. His face and head were covered with cancerous lesions, and his ears were literally rotting off. He got tired of the local doctor cutting the cancers off and followed a friend’s advice to use crushed poke berries as a topical dressing. Before he died every cancerous lesion was completely gone, and the cure began immediately. My daughter had chemo and radiation for lung cancer and thymus cancer and was told that she likely would get skin cancer later as a result of her treatments. A lesion appeared on her face a few weeks ago, and she had me collect poke berries for her. Within two weeks, the lesion disappeared. Many local people swallow two or three dried poke berries for arthritis. DO NOT CHEW THE SEEDS! They are toxic. They just pass through without being digested. This site is very good : http://www.quantumagriculture.com/node/203
Very interesting stuff. My caveat to these types of anecdotes is that, in the case of serious diseases like cancer, especially when life-threatening, the first alternative should always be going to your doctor. I don’t know if poke berries have anti-cancer properties, but I doubt if they would hurt anybody UNLESS a person tried poke berries first and waited for the results before seeing their physician. Time is of the essence in cancer diagnosis and treatment. That said, thank you for the fascinating comments and for reading!
Thank you for your comments and the reference to the article. I had an incredible dream the other day where the Poke plant came to me. So I’m absolutely curious to learn more about this powerful plant.
Hello Folks, Poke is what it is. There are some methods to eat the leaves that would make one person sick and another have no impact. Some of the perceptions drill down to what you may be use to. Some days I take a dose of Miralax to move things along… never if I have poke or some other foods the day before. It does cleanse more than my lymph. But I don’t see that as ‘getting sick’. I have taken 3ml twice a day of poke tincture that I make myself. It is about the same as 15-20 berries a day with a bit of root added. I learned how to prepare the root and berries to make this from a fellow that lived in the Appalachian hills of Alabama. He’s gone now but his apprentice Darryl Patton still teaches about the traditional mountain medicine. Anyway, if used correctly there is good medicine all around us. I never eat the seeds from poke and the root has to be processed properly to make it safe to consume. What most folks don’t know is that this is not unlike some other foods we don’t think twice about eating. Consider the sweet-potato pie you have with the November feast… those sweet-potatoes are poisonous if you were to take them right from the garden and eat them. Learn from them that know and go slow. That is how I have approached every new food or herb.
Thanks for the comments, Don. Interesting stuff. I never heard of anyone eating the root before!
I sure would like to know the proper way to use poke weed for medicine and food , like what parts ect…
Me too 🙂 been eating the young greens all my life but recently discovered diagnosed with those nasty itis brothers. I don’t want to deal with the side effects of the Rx so looking into more holistic approach
Don, I know this is a year old post but would you be interested in sharing your tincture recipe?
My name is nacho,I live in Nebraska . last year this pokeweed grew in my back yard and what a very nice looking plant it is, I checked it out with our extension service here and they said it was posies but she kept the stem I took to them, the women said she was going to toss it in the trash but I ever saw her do that I was there for ten minutes. Any way I pull some berries saved them and cut aalso trim the plant bare handed I never got sick by the touch, I also tried to pull up a new one growing in my front yard, it was no bigger then a pencil, “how strong it is that young ” what is the root demention that young of a plant I could not pull it out.
Hi, Nacho. Pokeweed won’t make you sick by touching it, so no worries. The root of this plant can be very large and the plant can be hard to pull, especially since the “skin” can slip off when you try. I don’t recommend eating the berries, but some people do without any problems. Thanks for reading and commenting.
We had a strange plant suddenly start growing in a planting barrel on our patio. It got big fast, then flowered. We had a hard time identifying it but finally sent a photo to a sight that immediately labeled it as pokeweed. It is exactly like your photos. We are in Lacey, Washington, and from what I have read, it really is fairly rare on the west coast. It has been fascinating to watch it grow bigger and bigger, and now it is loaded with ripening berries. We have a lot of birds so we are waiting to see how they like it. Obviously that’s how we got the plant in the first place. We were a bit worried keeping it because of the poisonous features, and because we read it was a pest, and we weren’t sure how to dispose of it once it had died back. Your information is much more positive than some others, so I feel better about letting it run its course. It has been fascinating watching it grow, bloom and produce berries. It is now very wilty, but the berries are still mostly green.
Here is a Forest Service site that shows the pokeweed’s range. Washington is included, so I imagine a bird planted that poke in your barrel. Regarding its toxicity, some sites (including one Wikipedia entry) make it sound absolutely lethal, but it has been a serious part of ethnic and regional cuisines since, well, forever. Just remember to boil the young leaves in at least two changes of water (when I neglected to do this on two occasions, I got a mild stomach-ache), and I would avoid the berries and DEFINITELY the roots! But the birds and quite a few pollinating insects truly love this plant! Save some seeds and you can plant it next year, too! But be aware that it will spread if planted in the ground. Disposal of the dead plant isn’t an issue that I know of. We take ours to our city compost site. Thanks for reading and commenting!
https://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/plant-of-the-week/phytolacca_americana.shtml
Hey there! I live in Denver Colorado and had an interesting plant grow in front of my house last year. I love nature and gardening and have lived in Colorado since I was 4 years old, now I’m in my mind 30’s, and have never seen this plant before.
It came back this year! I researched it and found your post. Very helpful and informative. As it turns out it is a Pokeweed. It’s now twice as big as it was last year. Standing at approximately 5 feet.
Nice! I expect it will be back every year and will propagate. Thanks for commenting!
I grew up on a farm in Northeast Louisiana. Eating poke salad, boiled twice, then cooked in a skillet with scrambled eggs and bacon grease is one of my favorite early springtime meal memories. We rarely ate them other than springtime, and I have never eaten them prepared any other way. There is an annual Poke Salad Festival in Oak Grove, the seat of West Carroll Parish, the home of Tony Joe White, Poke Salad Annie writer and singer. I understand folks prepare the plant many ways however, I’ve never attended the festival. Work keeps getting in the way. The plants grew in our community along the many fence rows, between the stacks of black locust fence posts, up past the tool bars and through the frameworks of idled farm equipment, and along the tree lines and between the branches of fallen tree tops, any where a mower couldn’t reach. I would often pick a fresh mess and haul them to the house for my mother to cook. I moved away from the farm years ago which is still owned by my sister and brother. Poke salad isn’t found in my neighborhood, so I’m always tickled to get a plate full when I return for a visit.
Nice memories, Tom! Thanks for sharing.
Just thought I’d chime in here. I’m a technological person, and when I was in my twenties, I worked in a cytogenetics lab at Johns Hopkins.
Most of the job of a cytogenetics lab is to create medical karotypes, which are pictures that capture the number and appearance of chromosomes in human tissues (usually blood). Here’s a picture of one, from a male, since you can see that the 23rd pair are mismatched (XY instead of XX). https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/53/NHGRI_human_male_karyotype.png/1200px-NHGRI_human_male_karyotype.png
Anyway, you can only photograph chromosomes through a powerful microscope when they contract because the cell they’re in is splitting into two new cells via a process called mitosis. When the cells are not in the process of splitting, the chromosomes are all spread out like threads, and can’t be identified.
If you’ve hung in with me this far, here’s the pay-off. The most significant medical effect of the pokeweed proteins is to stimulate production of blood cells, including both red blood cells (the ones that carry oxygen from your lungs to your body tissues) and white blood cells (the ones that fight infection). We would add a pokeweed extract to our blood samples, and then wait a few hours for the blood cells to begin dividing, so that we could catch them in the middle of the act and take pictures. This extract is called “pokeweed mitogen” since it generates mitosis in blood cells.
Anyway, the point is that pokeweed mitogen, in small, sensible, amounts, stimulates human blood cells to reproduce, increasing the number of infection-fighting white blood cells. In too large amounts, it creates too many white blood cells (or too many red blood cells), which cause problems that can seem like Leukemia.
Interesting! This is news to me. It seems that every time I turn around someone is pointing out some new, fascinating property of pokeweeds. I appreciate the comment and thanks for reading!
Any new information on your research? It’s is so interesting to see positive medical information on pokeweed.
That’s interesting because back in the day they used pokeweed berries in moonshine. Doubtful that there were outbreaks of leukemia. People use pokeweed berries in pies and everything else. When you’re dealing with the natural substance, your body should synthesize it in natural way. I suppose if you drown yourself in pokeweed by consuming gallons there may be some ill effect…but hey you can poison yourself with water as well if you drink excessively.
I have an article from Knoxville News Sentinel I found about research done by the university of Tennessee on the medical benefits of Polk. I can’t figure out to copy it to this post. Shoot me an e mail and I can send it to you. Being in the medical field for over twenty years I found this interesting. I also had bad outbreak of poison ivy one spring. After starting to pick Polk I noticed the rash burning. After several hours the rash stopped itching where the leaves had contacted. Thinking there was a connection I rubbed crushed Polk stalk on another area. It also stung but stopped itching within a few hours. Rubbed down rest of rash and noticed it healing up the next morning on third day of rash.
I hadn’t heard about pokeweed being useful for poison ivy, but can you just copy and paste the web address of the article into a comment here and send it? That should work. Thanks for reading!
I would love to have that article if you still have it. 🙂
Thanks, Clarissa
Patrick, can you post the article please?
Loved your article on the Pokeweed Plant. I discovered I had one next to my flower garden. Since it was outside of the garden I was going to pull it. Then I decided to see what I was pulling first and found your article. So, since it is a beautiful plant and the birds and butterflies do love it so much, I decided to keep it. It has been in the same place for at least 4 years and hasn’t spread, so I’m just going to build my flower garden barrier longer to include this little (4 1/2 foot tall) guy.
I’m glad you enjoyed the article (and your pokeweed)! I’m surprised that it hasn’t spread, since ours can be aggressive and require some pulling each year. Thanks for reading.
I have a 6 foot pokeweed in my back yard, just next to a fence full of ivy. Normally, I can’t sit very long on my back porch because of all the mosquitos, who live quite happily in the ivy. This year, no mosquitos! I was wondering if the pokeweed deters mosquitos? Anyone heard of this?
Hmmmm. News to me. We have pokeweed AND mosquitos, so I doubt it, but I’d be interested in hearing from others on this. Thanks for reading!
My husband grew up on a farm. He told me that when the chickens were sickly his mom dug pokeweed roots up and put them in the chicken’s water. He said it perked the chickens right up. I cannot remember if or how she processed the roots before adding to water.
Never heard of this before, but here is another reference: http://www.thymewilltell.com/poke.html. Thanks for the interesting information!
Giant leopard moth, Hypercompe scribonia is the name of the moth that uses Pokeweed for its larvae. It’s a beauty!
I’m not sure we get that species here, but I checked Bugguide and it really is a beautiful moth. Thanks for the information!
I have these plants growing in wooded areas near my home. Until I googled the plant’s description and came upon your article, I didn’t know what they were, although I knew of “poke salad”. Personally, I think they are a beautiful plant, and until I read your piece, I had planned on digging one up and trying to grow it in a large pot. Do you think that could successfully be done?
Not sure about the pot, because pokeweed spreads a lot through rhizomes. Nadia suggests trying it with a very small pokeweed before it has developed a really big root system. She thinks that might work. Thanks for reading and adding your thoughts!
I’ve got a friend with a 5 ft poke weed plant against her house, has shade till about 2 pm then shade again at 4 till night does well its’ several years old. It has spread to a couple of pots by seed and grows well but smaller.
Now as far as poison ivy try attaching a small lead fishing weight to some sort of string where the lead will touch the skin while you are working around the poison ivy, use as a necklace or wrist ornament. My guess is that the lead neutralizes the poison ivy. also I have recommended lightly rubbing the lead once infected. Don’ knock it until you’ve found it doesn’t help, lead has a residual effect and a little shouldn’t hurt if it helps. have a son who contracted poison ivy when the pollen was in the air and the wind was right, especially around his mouth and nose, terrible looking, the only thing that stopped it was a little lead cross given by someone who treated with prayer, I’m sure the prayer did not do any harm and now I recommend the lead and one always needs the prayer, an ‘Our Father’ seems sufficient.
My daughter works in the plant beds at a college in South Louisiana, she has a degree in plant science from ULL, she swears by this lead necklace thing (no prayer that I know of but one never knows)and that even if the prevention is not complete the infection is way less and of shorter duration. I only show a reaction when scratched by the vine never spreads, yet! have the same happen sometimes with white or red oak bark.
Have a cousin whose father told him to stuff a bunch of poke weed leaves in his pocket for the heat rash in his crotch area (he is a farmer and worked in the sun all day), he claimed it worked well. wish I could have used this myself
I’ve eaten the ripe berries with no side effects so thanks for the warning about the leaves and root might try some though as my heart rate is around 90 bpm, will get back to you all about that
Interesting information! You can actually find this on the web as a home/folk preventative for poison ivy exposure. As for me, I’ll let somebody else try it out. Thanks for sharing.
We live on a hillside that is mixed field and woods. I try to routinely “patrol” the area to eliminate undesirables, which would include poison ivy [that our cats bring in on their fur] and also Phytolacca where it shades out more desirable native plants or flowers. I use a 4 gallon backpack sprayer usually half-full of glyphosate solution. I pump with one hand and carry a machete in the other, so I can handle saplings, etc. Poke is very easy to control by slashing the stems down to within a few inches of the ground, then poking the pith down to root level with a small stick. By filling the now-hollow stem with solution, it gets to the root and kills it without affecting adjacent plants. Simple! This also works for any hollow-stem plant. I try to get to the plants before the berry stage to avoid spread. However, in more marginal areas I leave them alone as there are enough invasive species around here to keep me busy!
We never eat the shoots but, here in Appalachia, know a few people who do so every spring and consider them a delicacy.
BTW maybe this is off-topic but the undesirables around here also include Japanese and creeping honeysuckle, Conium Maculatum [hemlock], Johnson grass, Canada thistle, and also cup-plant [Silphium] which we introduced around here only to find it TOOK the place, was very aggressive, and shaded out more desirable native plants! A few drops of undiluted glyphosate in one of its “cups” is very effective and, again, leaves adjacent plants alone. Apply low down, preferably in the weeds, so the birds won’t drink it, early in the season before the bugs chew up the leaves. In areas where Silphium is NOT aggressive it makes a very desirable plant.
Final note: “Canada” [actually Mongolian] thistle demands special treatment. as it’s very stubborn and will spread aggressively. I use Forefront, which is a sort of 2-4-D on steroids VERY diluted and will kill it out in a couple of days. It’s a broadleaf so the grasses will take over but I only use such a drastic measure hand-spraying each plant, considering it the lesser of two evils. I close by saying that there is no harm in hand-spraying individual weeds if you are conscientious about it. The REAL danger nowadays are the “Roundup-ready” crops that are planted after the farmer sprays THE ENTIRE FIELD with glyphosate. This unconscionable practice is promoted by the Big Ag companies to offer farmers a near-foolproof method of growing a successful crop with minimal effort, but what the cost? A better method MUST be found.
Thanks for the info. We have so far avoided using any herbicides, but, truth be told, there may be times when careful and limited use of these chemicals may be called for.
Moderator. I found two glaring errors probably from auto correct in my post so here’s a corrected version:
Poke weed
I remember reading a very similar post to this on another site last spring when I realized that my property had become inundated with 500 huge 6’ tall poke weed’s – I had only seen abou 25-50 the previous year. Mind you I had hundreds or thousands of small young ones, too. Some of the young ones I could pull up and root would come out and others would just break off. I’m a 77 yr old widow and can’t possibly dig up 500 big roots so I was very taken with the idea of spraying down the inside of these roots; HOWVER, no way would I use Roundup even as carefully as you do, John, as I think it’s the worst thing ever developed with the possible exception of the toxic types of pre emergent crab grass killers. I can’t even go into stores that carry them without having issues. Therefore, I started looking for a cheap alternative because I had at least 500 plants to treat. I came up with three possibilities- high potency vinegar, boric acid solution or borax solution. However, before I could try these, it got so hot and dry that the stems left from the cutting had started to die and the young plants did, too, so I left them alone. I’ve not gone out to my pasture where they were, yet this year but will soon. I suspect they will all have regenerated and I just hope I can at least get the berries cut off before they fully ripen, then my plan is to mow or cut them off again and spray them like you describe, John, but using either the borax or boric acid, unless someone here has an easier solution. I, also, have 9 bee hives on my property so I am a little wary of even the borax.
The interesting thing is that I found a lot of poison oak or ivy growing in among the poke. There was some other non toxic ivy, too. Guess the shade made it a haven for the ivy.
After reading all of these comments about pokes’ medicinal benefits, I’m beginning to wonder if I’m supposed to give or sell this stuff. I’m so against traditional cancer treatments and watch docuseries about all.diseases. I do believe in God’s promise that we have whatever we need to heal or prevent diseases growing right around us. That’s what’s so scary about Round Up. Rachael Carson and others have warned us.
It’s true that poke can be a little aggressive and prolific, and it comes back from large underground rhizomes/roots. However, for what it’s worth, pollinators LOVE poke blossoms. Are the plants causing you problems? Thanks for commenting!
WOW! This amazing beast has grown by the walkway to my house, and I’ve had to cut it back. My friends think it’s from the Little Shop of Horrors, ‘fraid it might be man-eating! It’s well over 10 feet now, and now I finally know what it is. Fascinating! I think I’ll keep it!
Ours haven’t eaten any humans or pets. Yet. Good luck with yours and thanks for reading!
Im thankful for Nancy’s and Hoke’s posts on this subject.
Im Surprised at the positive endorsements of pokeweed use often online. Through my famiy’s experience, at least three generations worth, we have been EXTREMLY allergic to pokeweed. A slight touch of the plant to skin, nevermind the roots, causes striated blister type rashes that proceed to spread for days and weeks on one (long after any possible oils remain topically). I find the effect worse than posion ivy and markings remain on skin for months after the blistering heals. I will not even stay in the vacinity while a non-allergic person cuts it down for fear of breathing in the particles. Please inform your guests if you cook it or serve it!
Wow! This is the first case I’ve heard of concerning pokeweed allergies. Thanks for the passing this cautionary note along.
I take one are two poke berries frozen a day for Rheumatoid go ahead and try it for Immflation
Your reaction sounds more like you came in contact with giant hogweed, which is often mistaken for pokeweed? // Giant Hogweed is a public health hazard that ranks up there higher than poison ivy, poison oak and poison sumac in respect to its potential to harm humans. The reason for concern is that the sap from this plant can cause a severe skin reaction known as photo-dermatitis or photo-sensitivity. The reaction can happen up to 48 hours after contact. After coming in contact with the sap, the skin blisters when exposed to sunlight. Contact with the eyes can lead to temporary or possibly permanent blindness.// Hogweed is considered a “look a like” to poke according to my research.
I’ve eaten up to three ripe berries without so much as a tummy ache. John Kudia (Illinoi Naturalist)
Not only was your article delightful, but I’ve really enjoyed reading through everyone’s comments. I’m trained in Homeopathy so have been using Phytolacca in potency for almost two decades, but, until moving back to Missouri a couple years ago — and finding Poke growing in a large patch next to our woods — I hadn’t thought much about the plant itself. Oddly, my brother and I do recall grandma (they had a farm up in Lebanon, MO) fixing Poke greens for us, so next spring, I do intend to cook some up (gonna boil & rinse three times, though, just to be sure — and, yes, your comment about loss of minerals etc may be true to some extent but obviously quite a bit remains). I found it intriguing to read how varied individual responses and experiences with ingestion were, not because I’m skeptical, but because I *do* concur that we are all quite individual and some are more sensitive than others (with the possibility of early childhood exposure maybe also having an influence). This has been great – thanks!
Thanks, Darla! I’m glad you’re enjoying the articles.
I took a photo of it and sent it off to Clemson for identification. No one new what it was since the berries had not shown yet. I decided today to try again after seeing the berries had grown out. It is a pain trying to get rid of something which comes back again and again after chopping at the root. I have a lot of black birds in the yard once in a while. Now I know why, thanks to your article. It’s also nice to know the danger of such a plan for children. But for now it will stay for a while longer. Thanks again.
Thanks for commenting, Bobby. Pokeweed is very persistent and will spread underground by rhizomes. Even if you get rid of it, chances are that it will be planted again by birds. We think it’s worth having around, but we do have to control it. Good luck!
I’ve used this along with jewel weed for bites scrapes and as a salve.
I prefer jewel weed when possible.
however for most bites or stings it dose tend to ease them. has a number or topical medicinal uses. however not as effective on poison IVY as Jewel weed.
has mild antiseptic/analgesic topical properties.
https://altnature.com/gallery/pokeweed.htm
I bought what I thought was Milkweed about three years ago, but
I have never found a single Monarch butterfly come near it. Now tonight while googling pics of my plant, I discovered it’s a Polk weed plant that I have. I don’t wish to eat any part of this wild and very berry plant. I have Gregs Blue Mist bush that has the Monarchs stopping bye on their way south! Do butterflies lay larva on Polk weed?
Pokeweed flowers feed many pollinators, and the plant is one of the hosts of the Giant Leopard Moth. Not sure how popular it is with monarchs, though.
Sooo…. I’m an author and I’m looking at poke berries in a blueberry pie to kill off a character. Are the berries potent enough to kill an adult man? Would cooking the berries “kill” the toxin? (FYI, I provided my website url for the admin of this thread to prove I am actually an author… I get a lot of weird looks with some of my research–understandably so, hence the reason for my disclaimer here.)
Not sure about deactivating the toxin by cooking, but I think you would need an AWFUL lot of pokeberries to actually kill someone. You’d be more likely to get them really sick. Some folks actually eat one to a few berries a day for things like preventing arthritis. I wouldn’t do it and I don’t recommend it, but some swear by it. Good luck with the plot of your tale, but I’d pick another poison! Thanks for reading!
thanks! Actually, he’s going to be reacting to a peanut allergy as well… double death insurance.
Oooh…..make it a Pokeberry jelly and Peanut butter sandwich, lol. Have you finished your book?
I grew up in NW Louisiana, Blanchard to be exact. I don’t know about about current events there, but they used to have a Poke Salad Festival every year. My husband’s grandmother (from the Arkansas hills) taught me to prep poke – boil 3x in fresh water before sautéing in bacon fat for a finished dish. Crazy, but when you are poor, you learn to live off the land. And it is good. Never underestimate the strength, savvy and fortitude of the American rural community. I am forever blessed.
Great story, Marta! Thanks for reading and posting.
hi,
I had a pokeweed appear this past summer. thanks for your info. Should I worry about my dog since it can be toxic?
Nah. I doubt if a dog would touch it. I’d worry more about kids being attracted to the pretty red and purple berries. Thanks for reading!
Poke leaves are a staple here in the south, especially the young tender leaves. Poor folks often used it as a spring tonic. BUT! there is a process that is necessary to eat the leaves. Here is how we eat the leaves of the poke plant. 1. We pick and clean the leaves, wash them. 2. Then we cook them in water until tender 3. Pour off the first water and cook them a second time. 4. Pour off that water and rinse with cold water. 5. Add a little beacon fried crisp and cook the poke, turning it over several times. 6. Crack an egg into the poke leaves and cook until the egg is cooked.
Taste a lot like spinach.
As a kid in the early 1960s my grandma made poke pickles. Yummy they were always a treat. Daddy ate them with his pintos and I just ate em. Going to try to make my own for the first time this spring. Loved the post thanks lots of info i didn’t know
Kay, do you have a recipe for those pickles? We’d love to know! Thanks for reading.
Think I will just have some kale. Green and safe.
My Oklahoma Grandma told me to change the water 3 times when boiling up the Poke greens. I have never been that hungry, thank God. I did plant a Poke plant here in Oregon. The root was massive when we decided the plant was to prolific to keep.
It has been over 10 years and I still get the occasional Poke plant popping up in my garden, or over at the neighbors driveway area.
All of ours came up voluntarily. I assume they were planted by birds pooping out the seeds. And, yes, they can be prolific! Thanks for commenting.
It is horribly invasive, if you cut the plant , 5 more sprout up at the base! I thought it was very pretty and had no idea that it spreads like wildfire in my yard. Master Garedener extension said Root ball can get as big as a bowling ball. All parts are poisonous, shouldn t apparently use bare hands when removing. I hate pesticides but i will have to paintbrush it on, as there are so many plant sprouts now, 25 ? On 6x 20 area
Yes, like I said in the post, it is very insistent about coming back and increasing. We keep it under control manually, but we need to do it every year. Thanks for reading!
I moved down to Virginia about 10 years ago, and had heard about this “Poke Salad” and Poke weed, but had no idea what the plant looked like, and really didn’t care. When my new puppy was about 5 months old, she got terribly sick – nausea, vomiting, diarrhea. The vet thought it was Parvo and I was treating her for that, without much change. I was outside with her one day and saw her eat some new leaves off of a weed. I pulled the plant, brought it inside, and identified it online – Poke weed. Sure enough, all the signs of poisoning were there – and they mimicked Parvo. I decided to give her a laxative to clear out any Poke weed that might still be in her system, and went out in the yard and cleared away all the poke weed.. She practically exploded with purplish – red diarrhea, and then she seemed to be fine – appetite back, no more diarrhea or vomiting, and she started to get up and around on her own again. The only lasting issues were stiff legs – her knees seemed to be bound up, and a bald patch on her rump just above her tail. She had a very strange gait for years, couldn’t do stairs except for hopping down them on her stiff little legs, couldn’t jump up or run very well, and the bald patch has never left. We have treated it over the years with no success, and finally just let it be. It didn’t get worse, it didn’t get better. Only in the last year has she seemed to have loosened her joints – I don’t know why, but she can jump a little, climbs stairs, and can run like the dickens when it suits her – 10 years later! So, if you have pats that eat crass, don’t leave the Poke weed growing in your yard.
As an aside, growing up in Massachusetts we used to make paint with the berries – we never knew they were poisonous, but we knew not to eat berries that we didn’t know! Lucky kids!
Wow, this is the first I’ve ever heard of a dog eating pokeweed. We have a grass-eating dog and we have lots of poke, but no problems. Anybody else experience anything like this? Thanks for commenting!
Bit of a late reply, I know, but while an adult dog might have more sense than to eat a potentially poisonous plant, puppies are like human toddlers and just haven’t yet acquired that savvy! I’m a breeder so a couple of times a year I have a litter of puppies and just keep them away from potentially poisonous plants like potato bush (solanum) and rhubarb. So if you want to keep your pokeweed or other poisonous plants and have a young puppy, I’d invest in one of those removable electric fences to put around the plants until your pup has acquired more sense.
Years ago in the 1970’s, I was a door-to-door salesman one summer down in Tennessee. I ended up talking to an old grandfather about 85 years old in a back-country area. He told me a story about how he had arthritis so bad in his 60’s that his hands were contorted and painful. But now, he demonstrated as he reached out his hands and comfortably fully extended and squeezed his hands closed with no problem. He said he was sitting in the waiting room at the doctor’s office waiting to see the doctor about his arthritis. An old-timer was also in the waiting room and started telling him about an old cure or arthritis just using things that grow in your backyard. He wrote down the recipe and went home and made it. The main ingredient was the root of Poke Weed, which was poisonous. Other ingredients included whiskey and sulfur, and it included cooking the ingredients. I actually wrote down the recipe myself with the intention of perhaps using that recipe to help cure arthritis. But when I got home later that summer, I couldn’t find that recipe. The man described it this way: He said that arthritis is strong. He said you need a poison that is stronger than the arthritis to destroy it. He said that the first time he made the potion, he went ahead and drank it, and it felt like needles were stabbing the inside of his throat. He thought he was going to die. But he continued to do it, and it got easier. He said that once the arthritis went away, he never had to take the potion again after that. Take it for what it’s worth. He seemed genuine. And he represented it as a miraculous cure the he experienced.
Great story! But anecdotal, so I DO NOT recommend pokeweed root for anybody, for anything. Thanks for posting, but please don’t try to copy this remedy.
I was raised on a farm in the boot heel of SE Missouri. We had poke salad (as my mother called it) growing on the fence rows. My mother, who was from Arab AL, cooked it in the spring and believed that you needed four “messes” each spring to cleanse the liver. She cooked it like several posts suggests – by boiling twice and pouring off the water inbetween. I loved the flavor of poke salad then and still do now preferring the flavor over many other greens. As a kid I used the red berries as a dye but knew not to eat them. As an adult I’ve cooked poke on occasion and eat it whenever someone else is serving it. Arab Alabama has a poke salad festival in May each year and they serve a lot of it prepared.
Thanks for the comments and sorry for the late reply. I am interested in the poke salad festival and I know my wife would want to go. We also have friends in the bootheel, especially around Haywood City, near Sikeston. Fascinating area.
I’ve eaten poke all of my life.. I thought I knew a lot about it but I doubled my knowledge reading all of these comments.. Thank you all..
I just recently found out what that 6foot+ tall
Plant in my yard is. I find it incredibly beautiful and I love watching it change color. I did not realize how poisonous the plant is to humans and pets. Right now it’s along my fence line and I’m gonna let it be. But if it starts to come up in between my roses, my question is will it take the nutrients from my roses? I guess I’m asking if this plant is hard on the soil?
This post (and comments!) was so interesting, thank you! I just dug up an area for a new garden this month and unearthed a huge white taproot where we had a pokeweed last year, but I had no idea what it was. I smelled it and it smelled tasty and edible, lol. So glad I didn’t sample it! Now I’m sorry I didn’t replant it, but hopefully we’ll get another volunteer soon. I knew it was a nice plant to have around for birds but learned so much more from this post – I certainly didn’t know about the leopard moth and poison ivy remedy, etc.
Thank you for reading and for the nice comments!
I moved to Illinois in early spring; started off planting a small garden and some plants in the back came up on their own. My mother stopped to visit. She’s pretty botanical and noted that the plants coming up were swiss chard. I made lots of salads with it etc. Was kind of surprised how tall it kept growing. At least 5 feet now. I gave a big bag of these huge leaves to my secretary yesterday. She called off due to stomach pains. I sent a pic to my mom about how tall the swiss chard is getting. She said, oh, that isn’t swiss chard after all. I got a plant identifying app, and found out that it is actually pokeweed. Strangely I’ve been munching lots of the stuff with no bad effects. I actually love the stuff. Lucky she didn’t stuff her 4 kids with the stuff. It’s alarming when you learn you just poisoned people.
Well, this is the first I’ve heard of Poke being confused with swiss chard, which never comes up wild. But anyway, I’m glad you got it straightened out and your mom’s stomach is under control. No harm done, I ‘spect.
Due to it’s toxicity what is the safest, easiest way to remove a plant.? i.e..are gloves needed, normal garbage disposal?
The berries I’ve found smeared on paths..any specific cleanup needed?
Thanks
No, no gloves, etc. Pokeweed isn’t, like, “emergency” toxic. It’s just “be careful what parts you eat and how you prepare them” toxic. No need for panic. Chill.
Ok so I am really confused! Most posts are on eating, consuming pokeweed in some form.
That being said, I’m from Michigan have been researching this plant for almost a month due to my husband pulling a plant of pokeweed about 2.5 feet tall in our garden. And within 1 to 2 days started a rash/ iching / little blister filled boils between the fingers. He popped the little boils and it spread on his hand. As he scratched he spread the rash to his torso, neck, arms. We thought he had shingles. I was treating with herbs, but found they weren’t strong enough. When he complained of his armpit hurting on the infected arm, I knew we had to go in. So on July 4, 19 we went to an U.C. – The urgent care dr. Took a sample of the infection/ puss that was trapped in the now larger boil/blisters. (White in color) that took over his hand. She told us it wasnt shingles. And said it’s a contact dermatitis. Had he been around or pulled any plants??? I had already started researching the pokeweed plant. Read all the common articles that said its poisonous. Can kill you! Dont touch it. Causes a rash…yadda, yada! Well….
Here’s the kicker.
1. They put him on steroids and an antibiotic.
It got better.
2. Got his results back from the culture and he had a strep AND staph infection!
3. Hes now finished round 2 of antibiotics and a 5 day steroid.
4. Hubby is still dealing with a reaccuring rash/blisters. Always showing up at the same original spot. On the hands and between the fingers!
He just got done with round 2 and hes itching again.
Can anyone give me insite here??? I would just like to know what in blazes is going on!
I took pictures of his hands and chest. ( for precautions on work) but in past comments some stated that you CAN NOT get a rash from the stalks, nor will you break out from pulling it?
Nor can you die?
Realizing he had a staph and strep infection and it may take longer to get rid of it….
Does anyone have research information they can share? Or documentation on the rash not doing harm? Or DOING harm?
In the big world (Dr. ) the research and articles are vague. This article has been the most extensive. I am still looking for answers as to what my husband is dealing with. – because whatever it is keeps coming back and if I can offer him relief by the medicine God gave us…? I would choose to do so. The Dr. world just isn’t up on plants/medicinals.
Thank you…..
This is a strange reaction, but, in my opinion, he could never get a staph and strep infection from ANY plant, including pokeweed. Contact dermatitis is another thing altogether, especially if he is allergic to pokeweed, but I have pulled dozens of these with my bare hands, getting juice all over me, and have never had any reaction at all. So has my wife If his symptoms got better after steroids and an antibiotic, the steroids may have helped with some contact allergies from poke, but not the antibiotics. The staph infection is from something else. BTW, I’m not a doctor or medical person. Keep asking questions from real health pros, but all my background is telling me that, other than some weird allergy, something else is going on here. Please let us know what happens!
I’m very allergic to poison ivy, oak sticky weed etc. So whenever I go to pull weeds, I’m super careful to make sure none is around. Well, lucky for me, some Pokeweed started growing in my back yard. Not thinking there was anything to worry about, I pulled a bunch out…the stuff grows like crazy. I didn’t touch anything else at the time except grass. 12 hours later, I’ve got a nice rash on my arms and legs. Luckily I was wearing gloves. No question, for some people, pokeweed can give you a nasty rash.
Wow Ive learned a lot reading all these posts !!! But I do still have a few quick questions…has anyone used this for Psoriasis ? If so how did you use it ? Also curious about the best way to spread these beautiful plants to another area of my yard…Do I transplant the root or plant some of the berries ? Do I do it in the fall or spring ? Will a shady area be ok ? Any info is appreciated. Thanks for the imformative post !!
Nichole, these plants will spread themselves and with the help of birds. All you need to do is wait. It won’t take that long. Thanks for reading!
Thank you Randy
I found it was used in Potter’s Psorasolv.
now discontinued.
I have a couple of plants that grew on their own. Is it also poisonous by contact?
Not to anyone I know, but some rare cases have been reported (see earlier comments). I think you’re safe.
I was foraging looking for pokeweed root, I noticed a plant looked dead it was fall end of October, I didn’t have my gloves on at first the broken stalks was freshly broken I got a small amount of the sap on my finger with a scratch from a thorn, I was in the wilderness so I took mud and tried to rub it all off, I thought I had, then after I went back home after harvesting the root withgloves, Iwashed up when I arrived home, about a hour later I started itching and a welting rash started to cover my body ,itching like crazy, I took another shower, and a couple benadryl, the rash moved from top of my body around my chest under arms sides, I went to bed, next morning the rash was around my lower body, and my throat feels a little hard to swallow, still itchy but not as itching as yesterday. At this point I am ok but just a tiny bit of sap can poison you. Be careful even a broken dead pokeweed can give you a reaction. I wont forget my gloves before touching anymore.
Wow, I’ve never heard of such a violent reaction before. (Although check out Tammy L’s post below.) The root seems to be the most toxic part of the plant (which makes me wonder why you were looking for it in the first place), but assuming that you properly identified the plant, my first guess is that you have an allergic sensitivity to pokeweed. My understanding is that the toxin needs to be ingested to be dangerous, but a severe allergy might cause distress after touching the sap. Again, are you sure you identified the plant correctly? Thanks for sharing!
Do the berries have the same toxicity level in the winter?? I worry about my dogs who have stepped on them a time or two. I didnt know they were posionous till today. How do I naturally get rid of the plants.. some of them are 4ft tall or more.
Stepping on the berries won’t hurt a thing. Even if your dogs ate them, which they would have to do to absorb any toxins, they would have to eat a lot to be in danger. As for winter vs. summer toxicity, I just don’t know, but I think if you’re worried about your dogs, you should stop worrying. These plants won’t hurt them. We’ve had dogs, too, and there has never been a problem, nor have I every heard of anyone having a problem.
I took a photo of my Poke Salad bush and someone asked me if I was sure it was pokeweed. I found your description here. really enjoyed your article. Makes me want to sautee some with bacon but it does not make me want to enough to try it!
any plants, animals, fungi, or bacteria that use this plant for food or shelter.
Lots of birds eat the berries and the flowers are very popular with pollinators. I’m sure there are fungi that associate with it and bacteria are EVERYWHERE, but I don’t know details. Thanks for reading.
I am finishing my ninety- third year in January. I grew up in the Great Depression of 1929-1938 and I starved my first nine years along with my family. In spring and summer my mother and I went into the countryland looking for wild food. For us to eat, and poke salad was one of the plants we ate, along with blackberries in summer.
Mother always boiled the greens with a little bacon, and we ate them with beans and cornbread if we had any.
Today I cook the greens till done, add sauteed mushrooms and butter, and serve them as a side dish with whatever else we have for that meal. We love them!
I can them with onions and mushrooms in pints for use throughout the year, but they must be pressure cooked for 70 minutes at 10 pounds pressure. I add butter on reheating them, and a squeeze of lemon. Fabulous.
I will try the berries on my skin cancer. Let you know the outcome.
Many thanks for your site, and all the participation!
Thank you! I’m hoping to get it active again soon.
Just saw one of these for the first time while walking in a county park in SE Washington state. Being near Thanksgiving there were no leaves showing, just the red stems and the lovely looking berries. Pick a berry and squished it, smelled it and put a bit on my tongue – a bit sweet maybe and a nice smell. Thought it prudent to see what they were before I went out and picked a few pounds. Glad I did, don’t think I will plant any as our neighborhood is full of children. Thanks for your post.
Some folks eat a couple berries a day, claiming it helps with arthritis. I don’t recommend it, although it’s unlikely that one or two berries would really hurt anyone, but it’s good to remember that the whole plant is considered toxic.
Even the edible portions should be boiled a couple times in changes of water before consuming. People react differently to poke. Some people never take any precautions and never have any problems. I have had mild stomach upset a couple of times after eating poke salet, but I didn’t do the water changes first. Kids might eat a bunch of berries and get very sick, so best be careful, in my opinion. Thanks for posting.
Really enjoyed this article and it’s full of useful information. Hopefully I haven’t rid the property completely of Poke yet! Haha
Thanks for the comments! We still have our poke around and we’re keeping it.
Very useful account and comments. Here’s our account of Poke at the northern edge of its currently potential range – https://www.doingnaturalhistory.com/2020/12/poke-introduction.html – we had one cold winter that killed off all the plants, and then the next year a lot of seedlings germinated, and then I checked wikipedia, and learned that the seeds would persist for many years in the soil. Here in eastern Ontario most of the Birds don’t seem to know about the berries, but the Harmonia Asian Ladybird Beetles land on the berries and suck many of them dry. We’ve only had Giant Leopard Moth caterpillars around since we introduced the Poke, but we’ve never seen any of them on the Poke, or seen any evidence of leaves having been eaten.
Thanks for this. It’s always great to extend the range of information we have, especially in these times of climate change. I bet poke is moving north, like everything else. And thanks for reading!
I just found this post. I have a friend that is an old times he taught me how to cook the poke he said that changing the water dilutes all the good medicine and he also taught me how to make tea for ths root and i basically just boil the root for like 10 minutes and let it steep. Ive been doing this for years and am still alive but i only drink little bits at a time
Thanks for the comment, Nikki. I have eaten poke a couple of times without changing the water and have gotten mild stomach-aches. Nothing severe, but everybody is different, so I caution folks to be careful. The root is said to be the most toxic part of the plant, so while I respect your opinion on making tea from it, I cannot recommend it in any quantity. Can I ask why you are using this tea in the first place? Do you use it as medicine or just like the taste? Thanks again.
Beautifully written. I for one love it, fry it, and eat one to two berries a day for pain. I also nibble young polk root. It an absolute love of mine. It may be my favorite plant for anti viral and pain relief.