Imagine coming across a plant that towers over your head, with ripe deep purple berries growing in clusters off shockingly magenta stems. With pokeweed growing to heights of 12 feet, this beautiful plant is hard to miss. Pokeweed is native to eastern North America from Maine to Florida and westward to Minnesota and Texas.
American Pokeweed is a prolific perennial plant once established, with large fleshy roots spreading rapidly and hearty seeds sown by the various birds that dine on its berries such as northern mockingbirds, brown thrashers, eastern bluebirds, American crows, cardinals, starlings and red-bellied woodpeckers.
The stems range in color from green to pink to deep magenta. The flowers can range from green to white to pink, blooming from May to October and once pollinated produce large purple-black berries arranged in drooped clusters on short stems.
Poke leaves can grow up to 20 inches long. The young shoots have historically been prepared as a dish known as poke sallat in the south and have been likened to asparagus, BUT this is a very tricky dish to get right, and if it is not prepared correctly, it will land you in the hospital.