"weed" ID please... common pokeweed, Phytolacca americana

how about this one?  it's all over the roadside here in Massachusetts...

thanks again!
-steve

think i found it: common pokeweed, Phytolacca americana.  any advice as to whether it could fit in a forest garden?  i don't have it on my property, but it's all over the sides of the road up here.

apparently it's mostly poisonous, although it seems the berries can be used for pies/jams/juice once the seeds are removed...

thanks for looking,

-steve

wow:
pokesalletfest.com

Poke Sallet A noble plant.
Poke Sallet has been a part of life in this neck of the woods since long before the white man set foot here. The natives used it for, among others things, one of the main ingreidents of thier love potions. Many a Cvil War soildier wrote letters to loved ones using ink made from "Poke Berries." In modern times much research around emerging cancer treatments center around the chemicals found in the Poke Weed plant. So the usefulnees of this noble plant continues into our day and beyond as no doubt new uses will be discovered for our beloved weed. Somethings are just hard to improve on.

also: now i remember that song, "polk salad annie" by tony joe white! (written in 1968 - my birth year)

-steve

Thanks for the info!  I haven't noticed those around my way but I'll keep an eye out.  I'm about 15 miles west of Boston.

These are very easy to spot from a mile away because of their purple color. The only way I ever heard of eating them is to boil the spring shoots like 3 times with water changes.

The poke weed grows well around fig trees as well.

I have plenty of "poke" as well, both in town and at the rural property.  What sort of uses will make me glad it's there?  Are the poisonous effects harmful in "chop and drop"?

Lolly K wrote:I have plenty of "poke" as well, both in town and at the rural property.  What sort of uses will make me glad it's there?  Are the poisonous effects harmful in "chop and drop"?

The poison is not allelopathic, so chop away or just let be. Poison fomo diversity.

Poke great pot herb. If you look for poke salad or poke greens for recipes it is very popular. When I bought my property I was going to plant some if I could not find it. Fortunately it was here. Martin Crawford featured it in one of his vides.
We only eat it in the spring when really young so we don’t do a water change but I have read about people eating it later and doing water changes. We like it so much we go looking for it along logging roads and power line right of ways that don’t get sprayed. I just don’t see the need to eat them later as their niches are one of the first available spring vegetables. They are really good boiled then scrambled with eggs and bacon for breakfast. Give a kid a rock, paint brush and poke berry juice and you will have great magical purple rocks and kids.
BTW they will thrive where other plants do not. I remember harvesting them as a child from coal spoil piles that were on smolder before the superfund paid to have the sites cleaned up.