Phytolacca americana, also known as American pokeweed, pokeweed, poke sallet, pokeberry, dragonberries, pigeonberry weed, and inkberry, is a poisonous, herbaceous perennial plant in the pokeweed family Phytolaccaceae. This pokeweed grows 1 to 3 metres (4 to 10 ft). It has simple leaves on green to red or purplish stems and a large white taproot. The flowers are green to white, followed by berries which ripen through red to purple to almost black which are a food source for songbirds such as gray catbird, northern mockingbird, northern cardinal, and brown thrasher, as well as other birds and some small non-avian animals (i.e., for species that are unaffected by its mammalian toxins).
Pokeweed is native to eastern North America, the Midwest, and the South, with more scattered populations in the far West where it was introduced. It is also naturalized in parts of Europe and Asia. It is considered a pest species by farmers. Pokeweed is poisonous to humans, dogs, and livestock. In spring and early summer, shoots and leaves (not the root) are edible with proper cooking (hence the common name "poke sallet"), but later in the summer they become poisonous, and the berries are also poisonous. It is used as an ornamental in horticulture, and it provokes interest for the variety of its natural products (toxins and other classes), for its ecological role, its historical role in traditional medicine, and for some utility in biomedical research (e.g., in studies of pokeweed mitogen). In the wild, it is easily found growing in pastures, recently cleared areas, and woodland openings, edge habitats such as along fencerows, and in wastelands.
Description
Pokeweed is a member of the family Phytolaccaceae, and is a large herbaceous perennial plant, growing up to 2.5 metres (8 feet) in height over the course of a summer. One to several branches grow from the crown of a thick, white, fleshy taproot; Michael D. K. Owen describes the branches as "stout, smooth, [and] green to somewhat purplish". Simple, entire leaves with long petioles are alternately arranged along the stem. Pokeweeds reproduce only by their large, glossy black, lens-shaped seeds, which are contained in a fleshy, 10-celled, purple-to-near-black berry that has crimson juice. The flowers are perfect, radially symmetric, white or green, with 4–5 sepals and no petals. The flowers develop in elongated clusters termed racemes. The seeds have long viability, able to germinate after many years in the soil.
Morphology
Plant Type: Perennial herbaceous plant which can reach a height of 3 m (10 ft) but is usually 1.2 to 2 m (4 to 6+1⁄2 ft). The plant must be a few years old before the root grows large enough to support this size. The stem is usually red late in the season. There is an upright, erect central stem early in the season, which changes to a spreading, horizontal form later with the weight of the berries. The plant dies back to the roots each winter. The stem has a chambered pith. Leaves: The leaves are alternate with coarse texture with moderate porosity. Leaves can reach 41 centimetres (16 inches) in length. Each leaf is entire. Leaves are medium green and smooth, with a distinct odor that many characterize as unpleasant. Flowers: The flowers have 5 regular parts with upright stamens and are up to 5 millimetres (1⁄4 in) wide. They have white petal-like sepals without true petals, on white pedicels and peduncles in an upright or drooping raceme, which darken as the plant fruits. Blooms first appear in early summer and continue into early fall. Fruit: A shiny dark purple berry held in racemose clusters on pink pedicels with a pink peduncle. Pedicels without berries have a distinctive rounded five part calyx. Fruits are round with a flat indented top and bottom. Immature berries are green, turning white and then blackish purple. Root: Thick central taproot which grows deep and spreads horizontally. Rapid growth. Tan cortex, white pulp, moderate number of rootlets. Transversely cut root slices show concentric rings. No nitrogen fixation ability.
Chemistry
The entire pokeweed plant contains triterpenes such as phytolaccagenin, jaligonic acid, phytolaccagenic acid (phytolaccinic acid), esculentic acid, and pokeberrygenin (in the berries), as well as the saponins phytolaccasides A, B, D, E, and G, and phytolaccasaponins B, E, and G (in the roots). The roots also contain other triterpenoids such as oleanolic acid, α-spinasterol and its glucoside, α-spinasteryl-β-D-glucoside, and a palmityl-derivative, 6-palmytityl-α-spinasteryl-6-D-glucoside, as well as a similarly functionalized stigmasterol derivative, 6-palmityl-Δ7-stigmasterol-Δ-D-glucoside. Pokeweed berries also contain betalain pigments such as betanin and others. The leaves contain a number of common flavonols. Seeds of pokeweed contain the phenolic aldehyde caffeic aldehyde. Pokeweed also contains lectins, such as pokeweed mitogen.
Etymology The first word in its scientific name, Phytolacca americana, comes from the Greek words phyton ('plant') and lacca—the scarlet dye secreted by the Kerria lacca scale insect. The second denotes this plant as native to America. The common name "poke" is derived from puccoon, pocan, or poughkone (from an Algonquin name for the plant). Its berries were once used to make ink, hence its other sometimes-used common name, inkberry.
Common names Phytolacca americana or pokeweed is also known as pokeberry, poke root, Virginia poke (or simply poke), pigeonberry, inkberry, redweed or red ink plant. When used in Chinese medicine, it is called chuíxù shānglù (垂序商陸)垂序商陸（全國中草藥彙編），洋商陸（中國植物圖鑑），美國商陸（華北經濟植物誌要），美洲商陸（經濟植物手冊），美商陸（杭州藥用植物誌），洋商陸(臺灣)、花商陸、野胭脂(杭州)、白雞腿(江西/Vertical Shang Lu (National Compendium of Chinese Herbal Medicine), Foreign Shang Lu (Chinese Botanical Atlas), American Shang Lu (North China Economic Plant Journal), American Shang Lu (Economic Plant Manual), American Shang Lu (Hangzhou Medicinal Plant Journal), Foreign Shang Lu (Taiwan), Florist Lu, Wild Rouge (Hangzhou), White Chicken Leg (Jiangxi). As food, it is called poke sallet, or more commonly poke salad, sometimes spelled polk salad. For example, used in Tony Joe White's 1968 song "Polk Salad Annie":
Distribution and habitat Pokeweed is native to eastern North America, the Midwest, the Gulf Coast, and the West Coast of the US. It is an introduced weed in Japan.
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