It’s easy to dismiss what you don’t understand. And even easier to malign it when fueled by peer pressure. That’s where I found myself shortly after meeting American pokeweed (Phytolacca americana). Though struck by its beauty—it was the most gorgeous specimen in the otherwise lifeless turf-covered property my husband and I bought 14 years ago—I couldn’t help but feel it didn’t belong here.
And that’s because it didn’t, not at that time, when the only plants in the entire two-acre backyard were two ash trees, a lone forsythia bush and a raggedy little rosebush, plopped down randomly amid the sea of poison-soaked lawn. Those didn’t belong there either. Nothing was in its place because there was little nature left.
Except this stunning plant for which I had no name. Turning to my books and magazines, I was happy to see it was a featured species in the latest issue of Organic Gardening. Unfortunately for the pokeweed and the animals in my yard, though, pokeweed wasn’t being highlighted for its virtues. Rip it out! the article said. Now, before it takes over everything, ruthlessly and in short order!
For the next 12 years, I dutifully murdered pokeweed wherever I saw it, pulling and digging and cutting its roots out of a fear-induced panic that if I let it go, even a little bit, it would swallow us whole by the end of summer.
You can probably guess where this story is going. Over the years, as I abandoned some of my many unkempt gardens to focus more strategically on a few, I noticed the pokeweed proving all of us wrong. Yes, it liked to plant itself here and there. It even liked to spread a little. But whenever it spread a lot, it was filling a void, a vacuum of little to no other life. When it stayed more tame, it was harmonizing with all the other natives I had intentionally cultivated.
As I learned more about the critical connection between native plants and native animals up and down the food chain, I realized that pokeweed was doing far more for the wildlife I wanted to help in my gardens than most of the other plants. The wide range of animals who dine on the berries of the remarkable pokeweed includes robins, mockingbirds, mourning doves, catbirds, bluebirds, cardinals, pileated woodpeckers, brown thrashers, cedar waxwings, foxes, squirrels, opossums and raccoons. Even the hardy plant’s delicate flowers feed ruby-throated hummingbirds and other pollinators.
As if that weren’t enough, pokeweed’s leaves are helpful to giant leopard moths, one of whom we saw for the first time this summer, probably because we finally had served up a favorite food with abandon.
Much advice about how to live in the modern world revolves around acting with intention and being mindful. Based on my experiences in the garden, I say sometimes we need to do the opposite. Let others act with intention instead. Give them room to grow. Don’t have a plan for every single detail of your life. Stop listening to the voices of the crowd. And watch what loveliness unfolds.
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I am enjoying watching the birds eat the pokeweed berries that are ripe now.
Ellen, I can’t wait to see this myself! Ours are just ripening. 🙂
Wonderful article. I loved it. I have long been a fan of pokeweed and have admired its many qualities. Although many parts are toxic to humans wildlife has abundant uses for this plant.
I particularly liked what you said about intent and just letting things happen without human involvement. So true!
Thank you so much, Bill! It is heartening to discover that there are so many more pokeweed fans than I would have imagined. I’m glad you mentioned the toxicity to humans; I had planned to squeeze that in but forgot. A friend the other day said her husband was encouraging her to eat them! I visited your site and really love your perspective, too.
Another interesting tidbit about this plant is that it is the lone representative of its primarily tropical family in North America (Phytolaccaceae). Thanks for the great article!
Mark, I didn’t know that! Makes sense because it certainly looks tropical. Thank you – I’m so glad you liked it.
So cool. Thank you for sharing.
I’m from Brooklyn NY and in the late spring I noticed a beautiful weed make itself at home in my deck planter which houses green onions. I let it develop and by mid September it started producing such attractive green leaves. So started my info search snd then your article. After speaking
With a local school gardener I
Was told that this spring their garden became laden with poke weeds!!! Now I think I should probably bed her down in an area where she can grow a bit and attract the birds and squirrels. So I thank you kind sir.
Actually, poke week can be a powerful medicinal!!!! The roots and berries are a very strong lymphatic cleanser!!!!! You CAN eat s9me of the berries. You just can not chew the seeds. You can either spit them out. Or swallow them whole! A tinture is made from the roots. And the tender new leaves can be double cooked with a water change inbetween. They taste like baby spinach!
Do you not know that you can eat the young leaves? Boil them twice if you want but sometimes I don’t. Pick the young leaves and they branch to make more young leaves. Springtime greens…great with potatoes, eggs, and a bit of garlic or leek leaves…. what part of the south are you from anyhow?
nice to know the leopard moth needs them, love those little guys. Thanks!
Maggie, I’m in Maryland — not quite the South, but close. 🙂 I have never tried to eat the leaves but will try it some time! Yes, isn’t the leopard moth gorgeous? Almost otherworldly.
I live in the Western North Carolina mountains and have left lots of pokeweed standing as well as pulling some of it up over the years. The old-timers here still like to fix “poke-sallet” with the very young spring shoots. Not me. But I do like to put the unripe berries in flower arrangements. Beautiful color.
Sherry, that is such a good idea to put it in flower arrangements. When I started taking photos of it, I saw parts of the plant I’d never even noticed before, like the way the back of the unripe berry looks like a bright pink flower!
Sherry, I also love using weeds in arrangements, but some work and some wilt without conditioning and some simply won’t last. How do you condition pokeweed to last in arrangements?
And you can use the berries to dye fiber and its greens are awfully good in the early spring. – Arab, AL even has a Poke Salat festival (Poke Salat being the early spring greens) –
Wow, a whole festival! I’m so glad pokeweed gets more respect than I thought it did.
Glad to see another voice in the wilderness.
For such a neat plant, it has an abundance of detractors… Who are probably simply repeating what they’ve been told, instead of their experience.
Gardening should be about experimenting, and making our own decisions, and instead… Too often, it seems to be an attempt to bend nature into a reflection of inside the house.
Gaia hates a tidy garden…. And there needs to be room for surprises.
Stone, yes! We need to stop treating them like living room carpets. Today I went to a native plant arboretum, and they were even more beautiful when they were totally in their element, alongside all the other hundreds of acres of natives.
I recall as a child we could use ripe (deep purple) poke berries for ink. I don’t recall what we used as a pen – perhaps a quill. I haven’t tried it to validate my memory. (Arkansas, mid-’30s)
C.
Charles, I imagine it would make beautiful ink! I guess you would need quite a few berries, but that wouldn’t be a problem in my yard. Yet another testament to the versatility of this plant.
Thanks. I live in Northern New jersey and it is well establiblished in my yard
Hi Stephen, that is great! I am really enjoying watching it intermingle with the goldenrods and frost asters and winterberries at this time of year. The birds are loving it too!
I used to cultivate my garden.
Now…it cultivates me.
<3
Well-said! 🙂
Great article. Loved learning about it and as someone mastering floral design I will use it in arrangements for its stunning hues which will complement focal flowers well.
Thanks, Jackie! That’s a great idea. It would be so pretty in an arrangement at all stages of its seasonal cycles!
I live in Delaware county PA. I have always loved this plants, but my neighbors, not so much. I am very grateful for those article and all of the comments. I feel fortified to keep my plants standing. Last fall, I was treated to see mockers chomping on the inky berries
I love your writing and as a result of reading this article, will now sheepishly take my phone (with your pokeweed pic to aid in plant ID) out to the margins of my Carlisle, PA yard. I shall see if I, in my ignorance, broke the neck of the poor pokeweed, thinking it was a “bad” weed! We live and learn – all life long! Thank you! And apparently my catbirds will thank you too, when it returns next year and I let it live!
Hi Susan, thank you so much! Your comment got temporarily lost, along with some others, when my site crashed in July. But I repopulated the site with the latest comments so that I could respond here. Did you figure out whether it was pokeweed? If so, a broken stem probably won’t do it any harm; they have strong roots. Yes, the catbirds absolutely love the pokeweed!! It’s a real treat to watch them become very protective of it too. I even once watched one chasing away an Eastern tiger swallowtail butterfly who was on an ironweed that was mixed in. Apparently the catbird thought this was too close for comfort and didn’t want anyone stealing his berries!
Dear Nancy
I just read this article after identifying this plant in my Indiana garden (zone 6a). I loved it. After reading it I decided to leave the pokeweed alone. However I then read an article re invasive species & pokeweed was among them. Is this an invasive species in Central Indiana? The Spruce author was rabid about destroying it! I want bird friendly plants and don’t want to contribute to the spread of invasives.
What say you?
Hi Vic, thanks for reading! It’s definitely native to your region. I took a look at that article, and it specifies that pokeweed is native to the eastern half of the U.S. and also the Midwest. Maybe they’ve updated it since you read it. But as you say, despite acknowledging its native status, the article is written as if everyone should destroy it — and that’s absolutely not the case. “Invasive” only refers to nonnative plants that grow vigorously enough outside their home range that they can take over native plant communities. Plants that are native to a given region can never ben considered invasive, but people often use the term to describe plants they think are “aggressive.”
All that said, pokeweed isn’t even aggressive when it’s growing among a vibrant native plant community. It grows and spreads most vigorously on disturbed ground — which is why vegetable gardeners encounter a lot and get upset with the way it spreads. Here on our little two-acre patch, pokeweed colonizes areas where, for example, a tree falls and the light opens up. But gradually other plants join it and mingle.
If you leave it you will definitely be helping birds and other wildlife. Right now the catbirds and cardinals are going crazy for it here. It’s quite fun to watch! 🙂
Two years ago, I started the practice of not mowing a few areas of my lawn. It’s been a huge success. At no cost or effort, this created beautiful areas of wildlife habitat & food.
It’s been rewarding to learn each plant that shows up & notice which attract the most wildlife. (I take out invasives & leave the non-natives that insects are using – until I have enough natives to replace them).
My first pokeweed grew into a beautiful rounded small tree size it’s first year. My only problem was the number of babies that popped up in the spring. So I know let it grow in areas I can mow around.
The berries seem to disappear overnight, which makes me feel good.
Hi Nancy, what are your thoughts about leaving pokeweed up through the winter? We’re doing this with so many other plants now, but I’m having a hard time finding info on pokeweed.
I chop mine down in fall let it dry and the stalks make great kindling in my fire pit through winter. I learned this by just intuitively working with it. The roots will shoot up in spring for new young growth but also I’ve read that deer can and do snack on the dry leaves in winter when much else is scarce so there’s merit to both letting it be or harvesting it. Or a little of both!
Hi Ona! Yes, and birds can eat the dried berries — there are usually some left. I wrote about the deer eating dried leaves here in another entry about pokweed. 🙂
https://www.humanegardener.com/pokeweed-write-home/
Hi Janet! I leave it up because so many animals can eat it and perch in it throughout the winter. In one of my presentations I show a photo of a painted bunting who was a local celebrity in Maryland a couple of winters. He’d flown way out of his normal range and spent weeks in a park by the Potomac. In almost every photo taken by birders and others, he was perched in pokeweed and eating the dried berries! So I think it can really provide much-needed sustenance in lean times.
Thank you so much 🙂 I’ll keep an eye out and see what visitors I get. By the way, there’s a great article today on front page (online) of New York Times about leaving our leaves. The practice seems to be coming out from the fringes more and more and will hopefully be mainstream in the next five years!
YES to leaving leaves and pokeweed. The mockingbirds enjoy the berries and while they are poisonous to humans the birds are thriving!!
yes to leaving leaves and pokeweed. The mockers love it!
I had a tough summer because I had a knee replacement and gardening fell by the wayside. Anyway, because the feeders went dry, I discovered that the birds pooped the seeds and sunflowers and wild corn sprung up. Wow, what a fun discovery.
I also found plants that I had never even seen before in my 30 years at my house. Sometimes a little sloppy goes a long way.
I found a group of sturdy plants in my southern Ontario back yard and was startled at how tall it was in the relative shade. I had to find out what it was. Ah, hello pokeweed! I was seeing the same articles about it, urging “rip it out!” I do have dogs but so far they have left it alone (much like the houseplants I have). Thank you for this positive side to pokeweed. I will keep it from spreading too far but am happy to feed all the birds and bugs with it.
Loved this article on Pokeweek Nancy! I have let her grow up in my side yard with I am re-meadowing this past year, and she has taken quite happily to this environment. I’m going to look a little closer at which if any birds are munching. She sure is beautiful! Fun story- I used to have two poke plants in my side yards, and then a couple years ago I asked my husband to dig them out, roots and all. He did (thank you hubby) and then almost immediately a thousand poke plants started popping up everywhere in my small yard! I took that as a hint to learn more – and started making poke salat and realized the long tradition of eating the young shoots in the South and how poke has fed humans (when young and properly boiled in several changes of water) for many years, and often helps those too poor to perhaps afford supermarket food. Poke is indeed a plant friend rich in new discoveries! Right now she has a firm corner of my yard near a road and I must say, stunning all the drivers going by…