Attracting wildlife with pokeweed.

Hey gang! I got some pokeweeds in my gardens both at my gardens, backyard and community farm. What are the benefits of having pokeweed in our wildlife habitats, short and long term? Could we make hedges from them? I'm looking into creating one in the future if I have more room. Do they provide shelter? Please let me know how pokeweeds do in your gardens. Ciao!

I don't see much wildlife around the pokeweed in my garden, day or night, when there are abundant of them around other plants. Maybe someone else will offer their observations.

People mentioned using pokeweed as trellis for tomato plant though and I am quite intrigued by the idea. First year plant is too small but second year plant is strong and branching out nicely like an umbrella. I let some volunteers growing in my garden for bean trellis next year.

I had songbirds visiting and feasting on the berries and they enjoyed them. I wanna find out if I could create a hedge for better results and stuff. How can we convince that pokeweed has benefits for wildlife to others without them labeling it as an invasive weed?

The catbirds, cardinals and I'm sure many other birds adore the poke berries. The bees seem quite fond of the flowers too. Poke are really rather stunning plants, what with the purple stems and branching shapes. Several have volunteered out by the road. While they'd like to grow into a poke forest (and I let them in less visible places), in the interest of getting people to see them for the beautiful plants they are, I've been leaving somewhat more isolated specimens in amongst the rest of the plants making up my hedgerow. This really makes their shape and color stand out. It also makes them look more intentional and less like "weeds". At some point, I hope to make some tags for all my plants, thus making it even clearer they're wildflowers and not weeds. Doing things like this is my strategy to hopefully get folks realizing that native plants can be just as beautiful as ornamentals. Even more so, since they support birds, bees, butterflies and other wildlife.

Has anybody used pokeberry for dye and ink for writing as have been in the old days? Pioneers done that before. I don't know why anybody haven't tried that method today.

Blake Lenoir wrote: Has anybody used pokeberry for dye and ink for writing as have been in the old days? Pioneers done that before. I don't know why anybody haven't tried that method today.

People still use it as natural dye. I agree the color is stunning! I am new to plant dye and only tried once with silk and failed unfortunately. It's said to dye better with wool fiber. You may be more responses starting a thread in the fiber forum.

I'll do just that. By the way, any important insects use poke?

For the first time, I have pokeweed!

Of course, it is not in an 'ideal' spot, but I plan on working around it regardless. I've read how hard it can be to get seeds to germinate unless they have been exposed to an acidic environment (A bird's tummy) so I'm not too upset. There was one plant on my neighbors property that was stripped of berries rather quickly so I'm excited for a plant that can be left to the birds.

I've heard that the plant is a host plant to the Giant Leopard Moth? Has anyone seen them around? I'd be curious at what pollinators are attracted to poke.

What's happening! Long time no see! Never seen that type of moth before, but like to see one visiting my pokeweeds in the future.