Whether you call it Poke Salet, Poke Salad, Pokeberry or Polk Salad, if you grew up in the south, you probably know the lush green leaves and shiny purple berry clusters of Phytolacca americana.
It is either a weed or a feature plant, depending upon your outlook. In early spring, Phytolacca (pronounced fy-toh-LAK-uh) leaves emerge, their bright green marking a sharp contrast to surrounding shades of gray and brown. It is in these early, tender stages that some people consider the leaves to be edible, with a few caveats. The leaves contain toxic compounds that are removed through placing them in boiling water for a few minutes, then discarding the water. This blanch-and-repeat cycle is performed two or three times to remove the bad stuff, after which it bears some resemblance to cooked spinach.
My mother would harvest spring young leaves and serve them occasionally, topped with diced onion, chopped boiled egg, and a sprinkle of bacon. I never ate them because (1) hey, it was green, and (2) anything that required such effort to disguise the flavor must have been nasty-tasting. When I grew older and learned of its poisonous nature, I accused her of trying to kill us all, a charge she never denied.
Clusters of pokeweed’s unimpressive spring flowers turn into bright green berries which mature into deep purple fruit. The shiny fruit contrasts with the plant’s red stems, a pretty combination. The affection Mother lavished on this native wonder in spring turned to disgust in autumn when birds ate the ripe fruit and decorated cars, walkways and laundry on the clothesline. Birds love the berries and are unaffected by the poison therein. Unfortunately, birds spread those seeds around, so many consider pokeweed to be invasive.
Several years ago, an excellent nursery in North Carolina offered a variegated Phytolacca as well as a chartreuse yellow type. I was tempted, but my husband scoffed at the idea of purchasing a weed, variegated or not. His opinion must have been widely held, because the plant is no longer offered.
Pokeweed grows six to ten feet tall, in sun to part shade. It looks best if it is pinched back several times when small, to produce a denser, branched plant. It is a herbaceous perennial with a fat taproot that allows it to withstand drought and thrive in almost any soil.
Tony Joe White, a Louisiana native, wrote and performed “Polk Salad Annie,” a song made famous by Elvis Pressley. YouTube’s on-screen text during Tony Joe White’s 1970 live UK performance says, “Polk salad is eaten by poor rural communities in the Deep South.” Despite being a hard-rock fan from birth, I loved the twangy song and as a child, I would always chime in on the chomp-chomp portion.
Partial lyrics:
…Every day before suppertime,
she’d go down by the truck patch
And pick her a mess of polk salad,
and carry it home in a tow sack.
Polk Salad Annie,
the gators got your granny,
chomp, chomp, chomp, chomp…
(Fun fact: Louisiana is home to more than 2 million alligators.)
Ripe fruit is a shiny purple. Photo by Goran Horvat from Pixabay
Unripened pokeweed berries. Photo by Jan Haerer from Pixabay
Big, tough pokeweed tubers resist removal.
One of my gardener friends grew pokeweed in a container.