American Pokeweed Plant- Buds to Berries

Hi everyone! I thought you might be interested in seeing how Pokeweed berries grow. American Pokeweed (Phytolacca americana) in a native plant from North America and can be found growing in open areas like fields and pastures. In this case, my neighbor that lives on the other side of my driveway that has all of the pine trees, planted hers to feed the birds.

This past summer on June 1st, I found this first cluster of buds. Follow along and you can watch these buds turn into deep purple pokeweed berries.

Four weeks later, the buds had turned into small green and white flowers.

Two more weeks passed and the flowers turned into green berries.

The plant itself is large and can grow 5-10 feet high and it has a large taproot which allows the plant to spread and because of this, it is considered to be an invasive plant; preventing other native plant species to grow. The stems have many branches with a pinkish-red color. The leaves are large and can grow up to 16 inches long with a width of 4-7 inches.

In mid August the berries were beginning to ripen.

The berries are approximately 1/4 to 2/5 inches in diameter with flat tops and bottoms and contain 6-12 seeds. Mockingbirds, Mourning Doves and Northern Cardinals love to eat these berries. In the past, pokeweed berries were used in the making of pies and jellies. The juice from these berries was used as red ink and dye. All parts of the pokeweed plant are poisonous, yet to this day, some eat the leaves as a salad and still use the berries for pies, but you must know how to properly cook them to get the poison out. To be safe, leave that to the experts.

By mid September, this cluster of berries were ripe.

This photo was taken in mid September and you can see all of the different phases of the berries in their growth.

I took these last two photos tonight. We have had frost all last week which kills the plant but rest assured, they will grow back next spring; like it or not.

All of the berries have been eaten by the birds.

Thanks for stopping by!

All photos are my own.

Information Source: fs.fed.us, softschools.com

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