Also known simply as Poke. Large branching weeds that grow almost tree-like in one season, with chains of white flowers that resemble wild black cherries. In 1844, supporters of James K. Polk for president wore sprigs of poke on their lapels. It was a pun, you see. He won, so the plant bears some responsibility for the Mexican War. The plant is also known as inkberry, because the flowers are succeeded by black berries whose juice stains absolutely anything, and can indeed be made into a serviceable ink. The inky black berries are probably poisonous but beautiful nonetheless. This is the only member of its family in our area, but it’s certainly common enough. Gray lists it as Phytolacca decandra.
Gray describes the family, genus, and species.
PHYTOLACCACEAE (POKEWEED FAMILY)
Plants with alternate entire leaves and perfect
flowers, having the general characters of
Chenopodiaceae, but usually a several-celled ovary
composed of as many carpels united in a ring, and
forming a berry in fruit.
PHYTOLACCA [Tourn.] L. POKEWEED. Calyx of 6 rounded
and petal-like sepals. Stamens 5-30. Ovary of 5-12
carpels united in a ring, with as many short separate
styles, in fruit forming a depressed-globose
5-12-celled berry, with a single vertical seed in each
cell. Embryo curved in a ring around the albumen. Tall
and stout perennial herbs, with large petioled leaves,
and terminal racemes which become lateral and opposite
the leaves. (Name compounded of phyton,
plant, and the French lac, lake, in allusion
to the crimson coloring matter which the berries
yield.)
P. decandra L. (COMMON POKE or SCOKE, GARGET,
PIGEON BERRY.) A smooth plant, with a rather
unpleasant odor, and a very large poisonous root
(often 1-1.5 dm. in diameter) sending up stout stalks
at length 2-3 m. high; calyx white; stamens and styles
10; ovary green; berries in long racemes, dark-purple,
ripe in autumn. Low grounds and rich soil, s. Me. to
Ont., Minn., and south w. July-Sept.