I was walking around in Olin Park today, waiting to enter the Great Taste festival, and enjoyed the complete quiet for a few hours. Well, quiet with the occasional fishing boat moving down the shore. I stopped many times to stare at this bright pink anomaly, wondering if I had ever seen it before and heard its name. It turns out to be American pokeweed (
Phytolacca americana), a native plant of the eastern United States. Some reading tells me that although native, it can spread rapidly into disturbed areas and dominate the forest understory. It does however produce a large amount of fruit, which remind me of fruit snacks but are toxic enough to humans to be deadly. Birds, on the other hand, gobble them up in fall and winter, so that's another positive. Search for large long leaves and these bright fruit stalks and you can't miss pokeweed.
No comments:
Post a Comment