Is it the curse of our materialistic culture to always want what we can’t have—until we think we have too much of it and then begin to throw it away? What about what wildlife want?
My husband went to Germany for a conference in September and took photos of churches, castles, markets and bicyclists. But it was the image he texted me from Botanischer Garten Münster that I liked most of all.
“The botanical garden here has a pokeweed specimen!” he wrote. “Phytolacca americana!”
He knew this would be big news back home, where pokeweed had already attained celebrity status in our household. Over the years the plant has taken center stage in my writings and presentations, a symbol of all we’ve lost in our quest to lawn-ify the continent—and all we might gain by letting our native plants come home again.
The international pokeweed sighting also underscored a sad irony playing out around the globe: We humans are so obsessed with novelty that we make way for exotic plants from overseas by mowing down otherworldly beauties native to our own backyards. And the consequences of our whimsical aesthetic preferences can be dire for wildlife: While pokeweed may have its fans at the Münster Botanical Garden, Germany’s southern neighbors, from Switzerland to Portugal, have declared it an invader of natural habitats. In Hungary it endangers oak-hornbeam forests. In parts of China, it has largely displaced its native cousin there, P. acinosa, sometimes called Himalayan pokeweed.
But what comes around often goes around, and in the U.S. we’re all too familiar with the reverse scenario. Here on the East Coast*, American Pokeweed and other valuable native plants have to duke it out with species introduced from Europe and Asia—purple loosestrife, English ivy, Norway maple, Japanese honeysuckle, Oriental bittersweet, and other plants that have few natural checks and balances outside their original habitats. Unlike humans, who can technically travel around the globe and find food and shelter in most places—after all, we’re all the same species—many plants and animals haven’t had time to adjust.
What’s Good for the Bluebird is Good for the Deer
Yet rather than protect the wild species and plant communities we have left, we often pick and choose who we’ll welcome to our surroundings while bullying away the plants we consider too common, too rangy, too aggressive, or maybe just too wild to fit into our overly controlling notions of what a landscape should be.
Learn more about pokeweed’s wildlife value in my previous tributes: “A Catbird Goes to the Pokeweed Diner” and “Pokeweed, Please Forgive Me.”
Pokeweed bears the brunt of those judgments, and I struggle to understand why. Is it the curse of our materialistic culture to always want what we can’t have—until we think we have too much of it and then begin to throw it away? Never mind that pokeweed is a natural wildlife feeder, nourishing everyone from robins to bluebirds, squirrels to foxes, leopard moths to hummingbirds, opossums to raccoons. Never mind that it’s a top plant for migratory birds along the Eastern corridor. Never mind that deer enjoy the ripe berries of late summer and dried leaves of winter, content to snack on a plant that many gardeners rip out while simultaneously complaining that the animals “eat everything.”
Still, in spite of the lack of respect for one of our most beautiful native plants, a growing number of people are giving pokeweed a chance. Back in 2015, while interviewing sources for my book, I didn’t have as many pokeweed allies to choose from. But one horticultural rebel in particular stood out: Matt Candeais, the man behind the myth-busting In Defense of Plants blog and podcast. Matt admires the plant for its “almost alien” look, he told me, and its bird magnetism.
“Growing up and then later in life, I knew where some big patches were, and those were always good places for bird watching in the fall,” he said. “I would watch birds swamp those plants and just devour berries. So why wouldn’t I want more pokeweed around?”
“Mine, all mine!” said this catbird in our habitat in September. (Video by Nancy Lawson)
Plenty of people have contrarian answers to that question, though I’ve never found their statements to be particularly persuasive or entirely accurate. Pokeweed detractors claim the plant will take over your whole garden or kill your pets and kids. But the same could be said of many plants, whose very survival depends on taking advantage of opportunities and producing chemicals to defend themselves. Whether those traits become harmful to humans or not all depends on context.
It’s true that pokeweed knows how to make itself at home (because, after all, this is its home!), and it may indeed spread rapidly in disturbed patches with few competitors. But where it pops up in forest clearings or among meadow plants, pokeweed settles in alongside them. It’s also true that parts of the plant can be toxic to humans, pets and farm animals. But many hazards exist in our landscapes, including other poisonous plants. Keeping an eye on children and pets—and teaching kids to avoid eating what they’re not familiar with (mushrooms, anyone?)—can go a long way toward preventing mishaps.
Too Wary of Her Wild Ways?
After Will texted me his celebrity sighting, I realized I hadn’t joined the pokeweed paparazzi in a long while. This is not an easy plant to photograph. It’s almost impossible to do justice to its ever-evolving complexities: the chartreuse and hot-pink buds that open into Claymation-style white flowers with green centers; the strongly rooted rhubarb-red stems that grow thick at the bottom and rise to chandelier stems offering royal purple berries; the way the whole plant shape-shifts depending on its place in the light and among its neighbors. A pokeweed under a mature tree might take the form of a baby tree, while another in the sun might look like a large, thicketing shrub. Maybe it’s our inability to capture it all that makes people so wary. What or who is she, exactly, and why we can’t we tame her?
In fact, pre-European cultures and colonists knew the plant more intimately and knew how to safely prepare it, cooking tender leaves for food and using the berry juice for dye. Native peoples made medicinal teas, poultices and washes for various ailments.
I can only imagine how pokeweed appeared to them when they came upon it in the wild, surrounded by neighbors as part of intact plant communities. How did it behave when it had a place to belong? What would it look like nestled in among plants and animals it had evolved around for centuries, as opposed to popping up out of a roadside ditch someone forgot to mow or from the cracks of a vacant lot about to be turned into an apartment complex? As I ponder the question, I admire the little pokeweed keeping company with a birdbath by the road, the lanky pokeweed befriending the ailing ash tree behind the patio, and the thicketing pokeweed stitching together bare spots among the Joe Pye, winterberries, and giant sunflowers that border the meadow garden. And I welcome them all back home.
*Before nurturing P. americana, be sure to check wildflower.org and local sources to find out if it’s native to your state. Though indigenous to the Eastern U.S., some West Coast locations report its invasiveness in natural habitats.
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The Call of the Catbird (AKA Pokeweed Defender)
Depoliticizing the Wildlife Garden: Why Native Plants Matter
Nice article. Ive embraced my pokeweed and have personally used as a dye. Everything in nature had an intrinsic value. Thanks for sharing
That’s awesome – I would love to try that! Thanks for reading. 🙂
About a month ago I used the internet to finally identify what the huge berried plant was in our backyard, which began growing there last year is Pokeweed. It was such an interesting looking large leaved thing absolutely laden with berries and having a red trunk on it, anyway I have let it grow and will continue to do so, especially after reading your nice article. I was a bit worried after reading that it can kill you but only if you eat it which I have no intention of doing. Our specimen is about 6 foot tall and quite stately looking and is visited by young robins so I’ve been noticing. Our backyard is not all that large but I’ve let nature for the most part have it’s way. Our brush pile had a family of groundhogs this spring and we watched the mother raise 6 younguns and thankfully she took them elsewhere when they finally approached her size but every now and then I see her sans offspring near her burrow. Milkweed, that I grew from seed are all over the place, bee balm, sun flowers, joe pye, and other pollinator plants are in my yard and all the bees and birds seem to appreciate it very much along with a small pond and many water dishes. If only everyone would provide for nature and forget the manicured lawns which seem to be so devoid of life. Your articles on pokeweed lured me to your website and I will browse around it to see what else their is to enjoy. Thanks.
Hi Craig! Wow, it sounds like you have quite an oasis. I’d love to see a family of groundhogs like that – I know one couple who got to watch baby groundhogs use their brush pile as a kind of slide one year! 🙂
The pokeweed just gets more and more beautiful with each passing year. I think people see it when it’s young and don’t give it a chance to come into its own. There is a lot of fear-mongering about the plant’s toxicity — and while I understand it’s important to be careful, the vast majority of creatures for whom it’s poisonous, including humans, know to avoid it. There are lots of plants out there that are toxic to us and our pets but are so good for wildlife.
I’m so glad you chose to leave it, too — it sounds like your whole space is much appreciated by your local wildlife large and small! Thanks so much for reading my articles. 🙂
I actually picked up one of the baby groundhogs when I found it under by my garage, scared to death of me. I at first thought it was dead but in fact was just so scared it was completely still. I picked it up and could tell it was fine and it made zero attempt to struggle while I took it back to the brush pile burrow. It skedaddled on down one of the many entrances. It probably was the one I’d see that would just watch me from the entrance and didn’t seem so scared as the rest.
Love my Pokeweed! I’m in Florida and am amazed how fast it grows! We cleared an area of invasive bamboo and boom out sprung two areas of Pokeweed! Have noticed more moths and butterflies! Very beautiful plant!
Excellent!! Love to meet another pokeweed lover. <3
Pokeweed this year is bigger than ever. Last year I noticed the robins loving the berries.
Yay!! Last week, an hour after washing the birdbath, I came back and saw the water had turned bright pink! There was a little bird turd from which the pink juice was emanating. I suspect it was from a catbird who’d just had a fancy pokeweed meal.
Most beautiful plant but very invasive, I kill a hundred a year, but keep a few.
You mean assertive in your garden, right? It’s not actually invasive in the East. I just like to point that out for anyone who might be reading, since it’s a native species, and it’s spreading qualities don’t have negative impact the way that the spreading qualities of invasive species are.
In southern Maine, I’m a little confused about the relationship of pokeweed to “Japanese knot weed” (polyganum japonica?)Are they the same plant? The knotweed with it’s hollow stems is sometimes mistaken for bamboo by some folks. I was told Knotweed has little to no habitat value here. I have seen thickets of it take over areas and have not seen birds or any animals around it. It grows with rhyzomes and is hard to dig out. I hope we are not digging up a plant that supports native wildlife. We have planted a lot of natives though and much to our neighbors chagrin, we let a big chunk of our yard go feral and there are some beautiful wild meadow plants. But I’m stumped on the knotweed/pokeweed situation. Thanks for any clarification.
Hi Paula, I’m sorry for the delay in responding to this. They are definitely not the same plant. Knotweed is an imported plant that is invasive, and they don’t really look alike. Pokeweed can spread, but it doesn’t have that extremely dense habit that knotweed has; it’s more open. Leaf shapes are different, and flowers are very small little white flowers. Pokeweed stems don’t look at all like bamboo. It sounds to me like you are digging out knotweed. But I found this comparison article for you in case it is helpful! 🙂 https://www.habitatmatters.org/knotweeds-v-pokeweed.html
Greetings from South Mountain in Central Maryland! I long feared the Poke weed plant as a dangerous (albeit fun to play with) item to be avoided. Though I often ignored that fear to dye things purple for fun, I knew better, or thought I did. Just this week I had been looking at the 9′ “tree” outside of my window and wondering about chopping it down with an ax (it has a large trunk already!) and being rid of the noxious thing. Then, I happened upon your article, and it touched the contrarian in my head. Now, I think, maybe I’ll let nature decide what best to do with it. Thanks for the paradigm shift, sir!
Glad to hear you are letting it be! You won’t be sorry when the catbirds come — so much fun to watch. Cardinals and others love those berries too. And I am also in Central Maryland!
Robins also love the pokeweed berries like no other.
Hey About a year ago I open my side indie there was a fruity smell coming through the window with the breeze it was poke berries growing, I picked one and eat it it was slimmy inside.
In the mean time I called m daughter to ask her about the plant by time she got back to me to let me no it was considered poisonous, I had already tasted the berry.
During that time I was dealing with very high blood pressure tried a various medication s. Nothing seemed to have worked .I noticed after ingesting the poke berry I had no problem with my blood pressure for at least 6 months.
I started doing research on this plant and have been doing so since.
I am doing the same. Had one start growing in a pot that I had seeded with what I have forgotten. This alien looking plant with its dangerous looking read stalk and purple berries was intriguing. It’s will to live was admirable- it was vigorous in its growth. I planted it and it is going strong. I want to see it grown and in its glory.
I live in northern Illinois and I’m not sure where my first pokeweed plant came from, but when I watched fall migratory birds relish the berries as they took a break on their journey it became a welcome plant in my yard. It seeds in many places and I almost always leave it to grow where it chooses. I proudly show off my plants to garden friends and sing its praises.
That is wonderful! It just takes one sighting like that to change minds. I hope your friend are now keeping pokeweed around too! 🙂
Very timely narrative and thanks for posting. Apparently we’re not the only ones in love with pokeweed. I spied a dwarf version at the Mt.Cuba Center near their trial gardens. I saw it in October and the plant was leafed to the ground, about 3′ tall and about 3-4′ wide. Foliage was finer, too. This could be just the plant for our horticulture industry to embrace.
That’s so interesting! I know there is a variegated form, and I saw it once in a friend’s garden in New York. I was worried that it might somehow cross with the wild forms – that would be my only concern about “domestication” of this plant, since we know for sure how well-adapted and valuable to wildlife the species already is.
Nancy,
Even in a wild population of pokeweed there are always going to be seedlings which emerge that may contain different characteristics. Over time even wild populations gradually change with mutations, some lethal, some beneficial. That is what evolution is all about. Variegated forms in nature genetically are usually weaker.
I loved this article and the featured photo, Nancy.
I like to think of our native plants invading other countries as a sort of revenge but I guess I shouldn’t be so gleeful. We’ve really messed up all areas of our dear Mother Earth.
Wish I had the acreage for more pokeweed. It’s a beautiful plant. I find it’s no more aggressive than say, tulip trees.
Keep on teaching us, Nancy.
Thanks, Toni. <3 I often think of the people in other countries trying to do what we're doing and cursing our native plants. I wish we could just meet up and have an international exchange: Here, you take back your stiltgrass, and we'll get the pokeweed off your hands and back where it belongs.
I had the pleasure of discovering a Leopard Moth this spring with its beautiful patterned wings. I also had the pleasure of happening upon the large Leopard Moth Caterpillar in the fall and guess what I have growing in my meadow? Pokeweed! I always admire its evolving colors. A very pretty plant. The property I own I leave wild with the exception of a small patch of garden in which I plant mostly native plants. It is paradise!
Wow, I haven’t seen the caterpillar yet! We’ve seen the adult moth three times — so beautiful. It sounds like you have a gorgeous place for both you and the animals. <3
I’ve a friend who harvests young poke weed leaves and cooks them as a good green meal. The big tubers that I find in my compost piles can be dug up and transferred to a place where you can let it grow.Im sure the berries make a mean mead if you have enough just have to have enough to make a descent batch but have never taken the time . I always seem to have plenty of extra volunteers that grow everywhere from birds seeding them.
Ooh, I hadn’t thought about mead! Yes, that would probably be a strong one. It’s good to know you’ve been able to replant the tubers. I haven’t actually tried planting them yet, since they find their own spots well enough, but maybe that would be a good way to share with friends who don’t have pokeweed. 🙂
Used to harvest young sprouts when I lived on farm in the Ozark Mountains in the 1970s.
Also harvested dock and squarestem. Cooked as greens for family. Froze some. Sure stretched the budget when feeding a hungry family. Farm had more than we could eat so always some for wildlife and to spread for the next spring. Now let it grow in my suburban St. Louis native garden.
That is fantastic, and you taught me a new plant! I hadn’t heard of squarestem. It’s amazing how much salad we could get from just foraging right in our own yards if we let these plants do their thing a little more. Thanks for writing. 🙂
Hi Nancy . . . thank you for “saying it like it is”! I believe it’s good for us humans to read and hear info that offers us the opportunity to really try to think outside of our mental boxes which often can have quite narrow dimensions. Many native plants that have “weed” as part of their names may be especially disparaged by those who mistakenly think that any “weed” is worthless. Being open to considering and appreciating the inherent values of diversity perhaps should be included as an essential mental trait not only for human survival, but for responsible environmental stewardship and all of the rewards for everything under the sun that result from it. Your writing is a great part of the education effort! (Didn’t Elvis Presley perform a song titled “Poke Salet Annie”? It’s cooked pokeweed leaves that Southerners eat as “salet” — or used to — because the raw leaves as a “salad” are a no-no.)
Such a pertinent post and beautifully written. The same situation applies here in South Africa – although there is a move towards encouraging planting native plants, many still prize the exotic, and are obsessed with novelty as you say. It seems so weird that unhealthy mutations or inappropriate transplants, which battle to survive, are prized more than healthy species that thrive without expensive inputs and fussy pampering.
I have been thinking about the perverseness of Europeans in the colonial era – they loved to take exotic species from afar back to their own countries, but when they settled in those faraway countries they quickly set about planting the plants they grew at home and scorned the native plants in the colonies! Seems many have not gotten over that mindset!
Hi Carol!
Thank you! It’s so fascinating to think about this because over the years, I’ve noticed that some of our popular plants here originated in South Africa. My father actually ran a program to find species from other countries that would grow well here — mostly as house plants but sometimes for gardens — and I remember him traveling to South Africa a few times. Now he plants a lot of our native species in his front yard, even though he lives in a mostly lawn-covered community where no one else does that.
As we approach our Thanksgiving holiday here, I’ve been thinking a lot again about this too, as it relates to plants, animals and people. I hate that the whole holiday is built around the turkey, a species we treat so abysmally in factory farms and almost shot out of existence in the wild. The legacy of colonization is so painful.
It’s always so wonderful to hear from you and hear your perspective from across the world.
There is a pokeweed growing right outside our first floor bathroom window (as well as along the side of the house). When thinning out the area to create a buffer for our cement foundation, my teenage son asked me specifically not to cut the pokeweed right outside the bathroom window (which I wouldn’t have done anyway) cause he thought it looked cool. We all enjoy watching the monarchs nectaring on the flowers in summer and the catbirds feasting on the berries in fall. Pretty good way to take care of business. Also, the Field Guides podcast does a wonderful episode on pokeweed. http://www.thefieldguidespodcast.com/new-blog/2016/11/3/the-field-guides-ep-12-pokeweed-every-day
Thank you Nancy!
Hi Missy,
That sounds beautiful! I love that your son is a pokeweed defender too. 🙂 And a couple of people have commented that they’ve seen monarchs on the flowers – I will have to look for that next year! And I’ll listen to the Field Guide episode – thanks so much for the tip!
True, but the one I saw in my friend’s garden — and (I’m guessing also the ones at Mt. Cuba’s trial gardens) — was cultivated. If one cultivated form ends up being planted en masse in gardens, it could be either weaker or stronger than wild forms of the species. Hard to say what would happen, right? And it could outcompete it or hybridize with it, reducing overall genetic diversity. If it’s variegated, it might be less likely (my friend’s variegated cultivar died within a year!), but I’m guessing not all the cultivars are variegated. I hope to get people to embrace the plant we already know is resilient and has the structural and nutritional value that wildlife need – the wild one! 🙂
You make a strong case for Pokeweed, though I doubt it will convince my spouse. Though since it is growing in the alley behind my house, I don’t suppose it is so essential to have inside my garden.
Maybe one day if she sees a bluebird chowing away on the one in the alley, she’ll appreciate it more! 🙂
Hi Nancy! I can totally relate to your wonderful article. Here we cut down our natives to give way to the “exotic.” I’ll suggest this in the next annual community meeting so neighbors can give local vegetation a chance.
Thanks, Soledad! That would be great if they’d just try it out. Once you start seeing all the life that arrives as a result, you can’t help but be swayed! 🙂
We had a gorgeous pokeweed plant grow in the corner of an unplanted flower bed of our new house. I decided to let native plants grow there as volunteers—and was amazed at the way nature laid out a gorgeous little plot of flower bed with 5 or six lovely little herbs and plants. The pokeweed was The loveliest and most stunning and grew right in front of where I put my hummingbird feeder. The hummingbirds use it as a place to stand guard to defend the feeder from invaders. Something started to nibble on the leaves—usually mostly where the hummingbirds has been sitting. Now almost all of the leaves are stripped. I do not know what has eaten them.
Hi Patricia! Sounds beautiful! Maybe it was caterpillars of the giant leopard moth eating the leaves? That would be neat! Pokeweed is their host plant.
I have poke all around my yard. I dig up a root in fall once leaves die, and then make a tincture. Use if for when my immune system needs a boost or my lymph is sluggish. you don’t need to take much as it is potent and only for a few days. It is amazing to think we have medicine right in the back yard.
I like leaving my yard a little wild and it is nice to see others do too. Don’t really understand the whole lawn thing. Thanks for the poke support!
That’s neat! I’ve read a bit about that and about the studies on using it potentially for cancer treatment. There is still so much we don’t know about these plants all around us.
Hey C: Was surprised to see this first mention of Poke for medicine. I too have tinctured Poke root and use occasionally as an immune/lymph enhancer, but I use it very sparingly, 2-4 drops at a time to protect from toxicity. I do a lot with plant based medicine, mostly in the form of decoctions, infusions, and some tinctures and essential oils. Some years ago I prayed to the plant spirits to grow what I needed to use medicinally and it was amazing to see what came up, mostly as volunteers in my garden which I garden around. Pokeweed, Yellowdock, Burdock, Dandelion, Mulein, Wood Nettles, Stinging Nettles, Purslane, and Lambs Quarters are some of the plants that came up. I use the dried roots of some and dried and raw vegetation of others for food and medicine, supplemented with purchased bulk herbs from my local co-op for my recipes – mostly for tonic liver and kidney decoctions I make on a weekly basis (3 weeks of month – 2 quarts of liver decoction and 1 week a month – 2 quarts of kidney decoction – drinking half a quart/day Monday – Thursday, nothing on weekend). My dehydrator is instrumental to my process as is my Ninja blender. However my garden often looks a little jungly, this year with two 7-foot Pokeweed beauties in it. At 60 years old I am quite healthy – No prescription meds and I am an active teacher, coach, gardener, personal herbalist, and musician. These plants are not only good for the local eco-systems, but also good for us! Even the much maligned invasive – Japanese Knotweed Root being used in tinctures to treat Lyme’s Disease and co-infections, which I’ve had twice with no long term effects – did complementary herbal protocol alongside antibiotics. Check Green Dragon Botanicals – Brattleboro, VT for their product. I am in NH just over the border from VT, but formerly lived in VT and Wisconsin. Still so much to learn of what plants can teach us and dosage/purity always so important!
90%+ of the lawns I see all look the same. Grass that they have to fertilize, water, and constantly mow and for what ultimate purpose? Most don’t use their lawns for anything other than to constantly take care of. Another thing is that many flowers people plant do not provide for pollinators. I might be wrong but what use are roses? My yard is a wildlife haven and most folks probably wonder what the heck is going on. If everyone would just wake up and nurture the natural world then species would not be dying off but they’d be thriving.
Hi Craig – I so agree that if people just could have a tiny window into how much beautiful life they could be nurturing, they’d never look back. Last year a neighbor told me how interested he and his family have become in bees, but they hire a lawn service that comes every single week all season and blasts the whole place down. It’s sad because I think people get so overwhelmed even thinking about how to start that sometimes they don’t start at all. I have been slowly trying to show that you can start with just one little patch … but it’s a process for some people that can take years. Anyway, I appreciate that you are doing this — there are more of us than we think! 🙂 Regarding the roses, we do have native roses in almost all regions. Here I plant Virginia roses, and they are quite a bonanza for birds, rabbits, bees (I took a video of bees buzz-pollinating them this summer!). But yeah, the old manicured kinds aren’t much help.
Thankfully, I read your article before cutting back my pokeweed. I wondered what wildlife use it after reading all the warnings about it’s toxicity. I will continue to let it grow on the fence line under the cedar and wild cherry tree!
Hi Brett! I’m so glad my article reached you in time! I think you will love watching it grow there in the understory. <3
There is tons of pokeweed in my backyard
When I bought my home, My mom and dad told me I should pull it out because it’s poisonous
so I looked it up and found out it was a favorite of wildlife
I shared that with my mom and dad who had no idea and now they are keeping theirs too 🙂
Every year I get a ton of berries from them and My yard up with birds. I volunteer at the nature center and share this with people so they will view it as a beautiful plant that attracts birds and not a nuisance
Hi Jennifer, I love this so much!!! It’s so wonderful to hear that you were actually heard and that your parents followed through! Decades and decades (centuries?) of misinformation is hard to undo. Thanks for the uplift. <3
Does anyone have luck transplanting pokeweed? I was thinking of moving this large beautiful one that volunteered this year to the front yard. Fortunately, I think I’ve found some younger, smaller volunteers and I’ll move them. But do they do all right with a move?
Hi Laura . . . I’ve had some luck with digging up small volunteers, being careful not to damage the long taproot, and potting them up individually. The ones that survive and get well established in a pot then get transplanted to a desirable place in the ground. Some die even after that, but if you try this with several, you should get some survivors. Baby plants seem to germinate and grow well wherever birds drop seeds, or where dried berries fall to the ground around the base of mature plants. Full sun seems best. It can take a couple of years for plants to get well-established and flourish. Good luck!
Hi Laura! I’ve done what Debbie described — and moved very small seedlings when I want to start a new patch. Generally enough come up in many places that I haven’t felt the need, but last year I did this while working on replacing mugwort with native plants. Of three I moved, two survived, and one didn’t. I imagine you could also spread the berries around, though I’d have to look into the best way to do that, as usually I just let the animals do it for me! 🙂
The poke weed berries are thick on my Poke Weed and the robins are plucking off the ripe purple one. One thing is for sure, each year it gets bigger, almost a tree this year. Then it dies back down to the ground come the first frost. I had to help it out today with some strong cord because last night storm laid a couple of the branches down close to the ground. So I corded those to their opposing branches and I also helped it with a long broomless broom handle I pounded into the ground and propped up the largest laid down branch. Rubbing against the leaves daily doesn’t seem to bother me but I will not taste them or the berries. Birds for whatever reason seem to be immune to those berries. Maybe they kill lice.
Hi Craig, don’t you love how they really come into their own like that if you encourage them? We have pokeweed hedges now that are so beautiful and full of birds — and they provide a lot of shade in summer. One is hanging over a bench by the pond, and it’s just so fun to watch the birds go right over my head and eat within inches of my face! The berries are very nutritious!
P.S. I meant nutritious for the birds and other wildlife, of course! 🙂 I think some people do try them in small doses, but like you, I haven’t done that either as they can be toxic to us.
Found this article while looking for how to kill this horrible thing in my backyard. I just want my daughter to be able to play safely. This awful thing surrounds the little playhouse in the back and I can just imagine her picking those lovely looking little purple monsters and… I can’t bear the thought.
This line from your article seems practically anti human – “as opposed to popping up out of a roadside ditch someone forgot to mow or from the cracks of a vacant lot about to be turned into an apartment complex?” Because plants and animals can be free to make homes wherever, but not us people, huh? Humans apparently are not considered “natural” to you. You know we’re animals too, right? Literally everything is natural, that doesn’t mean it’s good or bad. I’m fine with whatever grows wild in the wild, but my backyard is not a nature preserve.
What an interesting interpretation of my words. Of course, a pro-plant attitude is anything but anti-human, especially when the species in question is one that people have coexisted with — and even benefitted from — for thousands of years. Your decision to remove a plant growing around your playset is perfectly understandable, even if for no other reason that its continued growth would make the playset inaccessible. I find it curious when someone expands an anecdotal situation into an entire worldview and leaves little to no room for challenging themselves or learning something different. Of course we are part of nature. We dominate it, and we have the capacity and responsibility to find ways to share the land. It’s up to each one of us to decide if we want to do the mental and emotional work that that requires, whether it’s finding a place for pokeweed or taking the time to consider and appreciate why it might be of high value to others besides ourselves, even if we decide we can’t live with it in our own space. Fortunately, lots of people are open to new ideas (or in this case, as in many others, old ideas that have simply been suppressed by centuries of colonialism and industrialism). Thanks for your thoughts.
That is too bad that your backyard is not a nature preserve. Hopefully you will teach your daughter to respect nature, show her which plants are safe and which are not. If you want to remove the pokeweed then remove it. I love watching the birds dine on the pokeweed berries. Just remember that it is up to the parents to teach their children and leaving the rights of nature out of the equation is what has got us into the environmental mess that we humans can’t seem to fix.
Troll alert!
Pokeweed has been among my favorite plants for some 25 years – ever since I watched a flock of Eastern Bluebirds devouring the fruit in a natural area behind our home. I also have a trail cam video of a family of racoons devouring the ripe fruit, and ultimately destroying the plant itself! Pokeweed will always have a welcome spot in my landscape.
I just transplanted some pokeweeds that were volunteering themselves too close to my mailbox, and I’m now dreaming of a little grove at the edge of our yard to watch the birds on. Thank you so much for your heart, your words, your strength, your knowledge, and your efforts. We are listening!
Hi Bethany, thank you so much for your sweet note! I’m so happy to hear that you are starting a pokeweed grove! When I transplanted some little pokeweeds a couple of summers ago, I thought they didn’t survive — but they are doing well now! A very hardy plant. I hope you soon have many catbirds screeching from the pokeweed. 🙂
Thank you! for speaking up in defense of pokeweed. I leave many pokeberry bushes growing and prospering in our back, side (and even front) gardens. I just love watching the birds eat the berries when they finally ripen.
It sounds beautiful! 🙂 If only more people could discover what a treasure it is. In so many places here, it’s now forming archways and hedges, mixing in with other plants beautifully, and this week the catbirds are having their annual bacchanalian Pokeweed Festival!
Hello,
I wonder whether letting pokeweed grow could help combat some of the invasive species or keep them at bay?
It hurts to see the knotweed flowering so many places.
Hi Elizabeth . . . I’ve been growing pokeweeds for about 40 years in Georgia and Florida. I haven’t seen them have any effect on suppressing any other plants — native or invasive. It grows tall (4-8′), with an open, branching habit, and with virtually no leaves near its base, so it doesn’t accomplish any significant shading effect. I’m not familiar with knotweed; maybe Nancy can make some recommendations to help combat it.
Hi Elizabeth, the growth habit can be variable depending on conditions. But I’ve found that, because of its root system, over time and as it matures, pokeweed can really help to crowd out or keep out other plants. And as Debbie said, sometimes the branching habit is more open, but sometimes it casts quite a bit of shade. In a spot where I was having trouble with mugwort and stiltgrass, the pokeweed has been one of many plants helping me to reclaim the area for natives and the wildlife who depend on them. Underneath and around it these are just some of the plants growing: golden ragwort, broomsedge, wild bergamot, wild basil, elephant’s foot, black raspberry, mountain mint, etc. I’m so sorry you’re having trouble with knotweed. A book from the Native Plant Trust a few years ago noted that Jerusalem artichoke can be a good competitor for knotweed. So I tried that in the old mugwort area as well, and it helps quite a bit! In general I try to look for things with similarly vigorous root systems or other growth habits to help me hold the ground or gain ground for natives.
Thank you for your response and ideas. I’ll check out Jerusalem artichoke! I do have someone coming to treat the knotweed.
I am thinking that it would be good to have plants ready to replace it.
I am hopeful we can irradiate it but it is on 5 different properties (started on a landscapers property!) so getting everyone to treat it is proving a challenge.
The birds hardly ate the berries on the huge pokeweeds in my front yard, so I get rid of it, but have been thinking of putting some in the back yard, which I’m converting to native plants and food gardens. I love the lambsquarters, which I am adding to smoothies.
Sometimes they eat them in late winter, when they are more like pokeberry raisins. 🙂
Thank you very much for this article on pokeweed. As a garden hobbyist, I’ve come across friends and neighbors, who’ve nay-sayed spotted pokeweeds in my (quite big ) garden. I have found them to be rather pretty and decorative especially in my shaded garden areas where they nicely fill up spots that are otherwise difficult to grow plants in (I’ve spent so much money buying plants that don’t survive in my shady garden areas, whereas pokeweed comes without effort). Plus the amazing benefits of providing food for wildlife, I am totally supportive of letting them growing naturally in their native habitat!
I have so much pokeweed coming up all over my yard. It is quite a striking plant. But it is crazy the amount of it that has sprouted this year. I have a very large Pokeweed that I nuture in my backyard and I had to run a rope around it’s many stalks so they could better self support themselves after a storm broke a number of the stalks off at ground level. It is so large that it still looks great even after the damage. So many, many clumps of pokeweed berries.
I grow and appreciate Pokeweed for all of the wonderful attributes you mentioned, but I have a question. It is very common to find Pokeweed that is infected with a virus – yellow markings and designs on the leaves that can sometimes be slightly disfigured. Those infected plants still grow vigorously and produce berries, as normal. On the same property, I have other Pokeweeds that are healthy.
Should I be removing/destroying the infected Pokeweeds so the virus is not spread by leafhoppers and other little critters that might carry the virus to healthy plants or let nature take its course?
With all of the rain we had in south-central PA in June and July, one Pokeweed patch out back is nearly 10′ tall. It grew all the way up to the bottom leaves of a Catalpa tree – much taller than me!
I recognized pokeweed when it came up in my backyard (suburb full of trying-to-be perfect Bermuda and Fescue lawns) and I told my husband to leave it alone. I just cut it down where I don’t want it. The birds love it. And yes, sometimes I don’t see them eating it until mid/late Winter, when the berries are dried up, when food for birds is more scarce in our region. We now have a flock of Bluebirds visiting? our backyard, Cardinals, and so many other bird species. The only downside is that hubby will drive the lawn mower and duck under the plant while mowing the lawn and sometimes comes in covered in purple splotches where he ran into the berries. I discovered that it rinses out of clothing easily while still wet or damp. The answer to that issue was to trim up the 6ft tall plant that he was driving under, not to cut the whole plant down. We love that it feeds the birds and other wildlife.
Hello Nancy. I’m so glad a) that you share all your incredible knowledge and b) that your email routed me this way. I recently moved to DC, and am ashamed to say I started pulling pokeweed. After searching, the first thing I read was that it was toxic. Now that I’m a nervous new mom and have had pets who chewed on things to their detriment, I let fear get the better of me. I’ll read more closely and hope to cross paths sometime!
I’m clearing vast amounts of invasive bush honeysuckle out and am grateful for the pokeweed coming in to cover all that bare ground.
Around here, it is a nursemaid for my young, hand-planted natives both providing needed shade and preventing (it seems) deer browse.
This year, my plot is filled with feasting birds. The only problem? One just pooped on the head of my white dog. Well, previously white dog. 🙂
Thank you for writing this.