Has anyone seen plants like these?

[ccsial]

A few of these things showed up last year. This year there are 10 times as many. I have no idea what they are. The stems are about an inch in diameter and purple. They are brittle and filled with white stuff. They break real easy. They produce a lot of purple berries too. I wonder if they can be killed off. I don't think I'll make wine from them.

 

[JDeerekid]

They almost look like eldiberries.

 

[John_in_TN]

Pokeweed, aka "Polk Salad" as in Polk Salad Annie.

 

[Erik_in_Hoyt]

leaf shape doesn't look right for elderberry.

 

[backdoor]

Yeah. Pokeweed. Young new leaves cook up similar to spinach.

 

[Kays Supply]

The berry juice will stain you like ink.

 

[dave1949]

Definitely NOT elderberry.

 

[Kernopelli]

Yep, "polk" or pokeweed is what we always called it. In Southern Illinois it's prolific. When I was a young boy my parents and grand parents would eat it often and I grew to have a liking for it. I can remember it always grew heavily along the rail road tracks that ran between the small towns locally and in shaley areas around the abandoned strip mines. But you can find it growing just about anywhere. I would always stop and pick a "mess" if I saw any young plants on my way home while riding my coveted Yamaha TY175 trials bike ( sorry...taking a side trip down memory lane here....).

I think it is actually pretty poisonous if you eat the stems or leaves that are longer than about 6 inches. You would boil it a couple of times and change the water after each boil...just to make sure you didn't kill anyone. The berries are poisonous too to most animals but birds have no problem eating them and then leaving quite a mess on any vehicle parked under a tree. Any herbicide ( Roundup etc.) should kill it if it's becoming a problem.

 

[6thgpSF]

darryl and others who say it's pokeweed are right on,and as darryl said it has to be boiled several times to make it safe to eat.I never tried it because of the toxic thing,it grows around here and have never seen any critters eating it except birds eating the berries. russ

 

[ccsial]

Pokeweed, interesting. Thanks for the responses. Last year the stuff looked really bad and dead in the spring so this year I cut it down so I don't have to look at it all winter. There was a lot more this year bordering the woods in front of my house. I hope this isn't going to get a lot worse. I've never seen it before last year anywhere on my property. I wonder where it came from.

I'll have to keep after it during the year I guess. Something else to do. I don't think I'll be eating it though.

I wore leather gloves cleaning it up and they are now purple. Probably permanently.

I found this interesting tidbit on Wikopedia.
"The United States Declaration of Independence was written in fermented pokeberry juice"

 

[Kernopelli]

I would suspect it was spread to your property by birds. The berries aren't poisonous to them and they have a hard seed in them that is expelled when they do their "business". I see a few plants around my place every now and then and they havent spread but I am pretty sure that they are a perennial and would think it safe to assume that they could become more prolific unless you do some spraying. A little Roundup or similar product during warm, dry weather should take care of them.

 

[ccsial]

I would suspect it was spread to your property by birds. The berries aren't poisonous to them and they have a hard seed in them that is expelled when they do their "business". I see a few plants around my place every now and then and they havent spread but I am pretty sure that they are a perennial and would think it safe to assume that they could become more prolific unless you do some spraying. A little Roundup or similar product during warm, dry weather should take care of them.

The birds sound pretty logical to me. I'll spray the roots this fall and in the spring too.

Thanks Darryl.

Al

 

[Gittyup]

Better get rid of it as fast as you can. It spreads pretty fast from the berry seeds and has incredibly deep roots. I have it and hate it. It's gotten everywhere.

 

[whistlepig]

Yep, "polk" or pokeweed is what we always called it. In Southern Illinois it's prolific. When I was a young boy my parents and grand parents would eat it often and I grew to have a liking for it. I can remember it always grew heavily along the rail road tracks that ran between the small towns locally and in shaley areas around the abandoned strip mines. But you can find it growing just about anywhere. I would always stop and pick a "mess" if I saw any young plants on my way home while riding my coveted Yamaha TY175 trials bike ( sorry...taking a side trip down memory lane here....).

I think it is actually pretty poisonous if you eat the stems or leaves that are longer than about 6 inches. You would boil it a couple of times and change the water after each boil...just to make sure you didn't kill anyone. The berries are poisonous too to most animals but birds have no problem eating them and then leaving quite a mess on any vehicle parked under a tree. Any herbicide ( Roundup etc.) should kill it if it's becoming a problem.

I have heard the plant turns poisonous when it matures. We always ate the young plants because they were more tender. The leaves were boiled to make "greens". We would cut the stems of young plants about the length of a finger, dip them in egg, roll them in flour, and fry them. I'm not suggesting anyone do this if they haven't researched the poison part. It's just some of the stuff we ate growing up. We didn't know any better because everyone ate them this way.

 

[LBrown59]

I would suspect it was spread to your property by birds. The berries aren't poisonous to them and they have a hard seed in them that is expelled when they do their "business". .

Seed and fertilize in one step.

 

[MrChris]

When I first started my pastures the pokeweed was fairly prominent on certain sections. Not exactly sure how it got there. It was woods prior to my clearing the land. It has deep roots and it's stems can get sapling size if you let it grow. It seems to like sunny areas. The ripe berries will stain everything, even animals that rub against it. It's very easy to kill however. I used a 2-4-D herbicide. Spray the leaves and the plant will start to wilt in 24hrs. Even the larger plants. My pastures are well rid of it now. It still grows in my neighber's fields and along their fencelines however, so I'm pretty vigilent on my own property.