SC - Superstitious Foods....

[Heitman]

Common name:  Pokeweed
Family:  Phytolacca
Species:  Americana

Taken from Wildflower Folklore by Laura C. Martin.
              ISBN 0-88742-016-8
					 East Woods Press, 1984

Description: The stems of this plant are large and tinged with red, often 
growing to heights of ten feet or more, The leaves are soft and plyiable.  
The small whit flowers and the dark purple berries are borne on erect racemes.

Habitat: common in dry areas or disturbed places.

Blooms: May through October.

Probably no other plant gets as much attention in the spring as does the 
pokeweed, or poke sallet, as many of the mountain people call it.  The young 
shoots are collected and then cooked like greens.  An old mountain recipe 
says to wash and cook the stems and leaves together and to boil and drain 
them several times.  Eating poke sallet in the spring is said to revive the 
blood, and since ti is full of vitamin C and iron, it could be quite 
beneficial.  However, once the plant gets about three feet high, it should 
not be eaten, because the roots and berries are poisonous.  The old fashioned 
antidote for poke poisoning is to drink lots of vinegar and eat a pound of 
lard!  This in incentive enough not to eat the pokeweed if you have any 
doubts as to whether or not it is the right time to eat the plant.

Besides being an excellent spring vegetable, pokeweed has many other virtues. 
 The Algonguin Indians called the plant puccoon, which means "plant used for 
staining or dying."  This also accounts for the common name inkberry. The 
berries are dark purple and make and excellent dye.  'An old mountain custom 
was to wear a string of poke berries around your neck to avoid catching a 
contagious disease.  Although the root is poisonous, if made into a salve, it 
is useful for soothing burns and sore that do not heal easily.  A concoction 
make for the roots and leaves was given as a tonic to chickens and when they 
seemed sluggish.  The berries are eaten by robins, woodpeckers, flickers and 
several other species of birds.  

In the presidential campaign of 1844, James K. Polk and his supporters wore 
pokeberry leaves as a campaign symbol.

More information taken from Magic and medicine of Plants, Reader's Digest, 
1984

Pg. 23 "And an old man conjured almost to death by his landlord was healed by 
the washing his feet in a bath of running brier and pokeweed root."

Pg. 358 Leaves, roots and berries are poisonous.  A malodorous upright 
perennial weed up to 12 feet high, the sun loving pokeweed grows in damp 
fields, open woods, and waste places in eastern north American, California, 
and Hawaii.  Its branching stem is reddish; its large pointed leaves taper at 
both ends.  Upright spikes of greenish-white flowers develop into hanging 
clusters of purple to black berries.

Personal findings

I was introduced to the plant when it was served to me as greens.  A lot of 
mountain folk worked at my last job.  I found them to be extremely 
astringent.  They were best when leaves were young and cooked with lots of 
bacon and butter.  They are very similar to very strong spinach.  I was 
warned not to pick them {the leaves} after the berries changed color.  I must 
admit that this was about three feet.   

Hope this helps.

Frederich
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