365 urban species. #270: Poke
Sep. 29th, 2006 10:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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cottonmanifesto. Location: Fenwood road, Boston.Urban species #270: Poke Phytolacca americana
This tall and robust native plant has a long history in America as an edible green, and as a dangerously toxic weed. When it's a sprout, six inches tall or smaller, poke can be picked and cooked (prudent guides recommend boiling twice, discarding the water). When the plant is grown, authorities seem to be agree, that from root to fruit, it's poisonous. That includes the leaves, traditionally eaten in poke salad, (which has been celebrated in song). Unripe berries and roots seem to be the most toxic parts of the plant.
Poke, or "pokeweed" as it is often called, is a perennial plant with thick magenta stems and broad green leaves. In parts of the city left unmowed--along hedges or in vacant lots--it grows up to five or six feet tall. In rich moist soil, in can soar to eight or even ten feet. The entire plant dies down in winter, but regrows from its root in summer. The fruits are conspicuous bunches of plump juicy berries. The juice from this fruit stains the fingers (but washes off with water) and can be used to make a non-permanent ink. "Inkberry" is another common name for this plant. The berries are a favorite food of fruit eating birds, such as mockingbirds, robins, and waxwings. Poke is utterly dependent on these predations: its seeds are unable to germinate without first passing through a bird's digestive system.
Location: Dana Farber Cancer Institute. Poke was historically used by Native Americans to treat cancer and other ailments. Recent studies suggest that the plant contains compounds with anticarcinogenic properties.
Flowers with five rounded petals give way to green fruits that ripen to purple.
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Date: 2006-09-30 02:21 am (UTC)The coincidence is scary, almost!
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Date: 2006-09-30 02:23 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-09-30 02:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-09-30 02:52 am (UTC)Nature's cruel joke on Turil...
Date: 2006-09-30 03:01 am (UTC)The only art I imagine it's good for is temporary nature coloring, as in something like Andy Goldsworthy (http://www.msubillings.edu/art/leaves_with_hole.htm) might do...
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Date: 2006-09-30 03:04 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-09-30 03:44 am (UTC)I really want to grow these.
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Date: 2006-09-30 05:40 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-09-30 02:49 pm (UTC)Thanks :)
thanks
Date: 2006-09-30 03:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-09-30 04:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-09-30 06:40 pm (UTC)but then again, goats eat just about anything.
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Date: 2006-09-30 07:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-09-30 07:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-09-30 07:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-09-30 08:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-09-30 08:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-09-30 11:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-01 01:38 am (UTC)Pokeweed
Date: 2006-10-04 03:21 pm (UTC)Dwight
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Date: 2006-10-04 04:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-04 04:07 pm (UTC)what's your source for this?
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Date: 2006-10-04 05:03 pm (UTC)It says that the control group (non-bird-eaten seeds) did germinate, but at a lower frequency and slower rate than the seeds they fed to mockingbirds and thrashers.
This site: http://www.bio.davidson.edu/Courses/bio112/Bio112LabMan/Section%208.html
contains the compelling sentence "Pokeweed (Phytolacca americana) tissues contain chemicals that inhibit germination of its own seeds."
This site:
http://www.botany.org/ajb/00029122_di001891.php
contains a reference to an experiment wherein poke seeds exposed to acid showed a higher rate of germination.
And then there is this:
"The hard-coated, obstinate poke seed must pass through the alimentary canal of a bird or animal to soften and prepare it for germination. In this process the seed is subject to prolonged heat for a bird's normal body temperature may be as high as 106 degrees. At the same time the seeds are at the mercy of the harsh action of powerful digestive juices containing strong acids and the scarifying process of peristalsis. The few seeds that escape complete digestion, then, account for the comparative scarcity of poke plants."
From the Mother Earth News http://www.motherearthnews.com/Organic_Gardening/1971_March_April/Poke_Sallet
pokeweed scarcity???
Date: 2006-10-04 05:39 pm (UTC)Dwight
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Date: 2006-10-04 06:05 pm (UTC)Pokeberries and barberries
Date: 2006-10-05 10:51 am (UTC)Many are now gathering barberries--
Am surprised to see a large sassafras
tree--with its rounded umbrella {like}
without limbs beneath--but as umbrella like
top ^ on the west edge of the yel-birch
swamp--or E of boulder field-- It is some
16 inches in diameter-- There are 7 or 8
within 2 rods--leaves curled but not changed.
See a red squirrel cast down a chestnut bur--
The big. woodpecker utters his whin-
niest ah week ah-week &c as in
spring. The yel-birch is somewhat yellowed
See a cherry bird--many robins
feeding on poke berries on Eb. Hubbard’s
Hill. There is a great abundance
of poke there-- That lowest down the
hill killed by frost drooping & withered
--no longer purple stemmed--but faded--
Higher up it is still purple. ...
...I found on the 4th at Conantum 1/2 bushel
of barberries on one clump about 4 feet in
diameter at base--falling over in wreathes on every
side. I filled my basket standing behind
it without being seen by other pickers only a
dozen rods off-- Some great clumps on Melvin’s
preserve no doubt have many more on them.