Pokeweed Traditional Cache

Pokeweeds are big. This one is just next to the Jim Schug Trail in Dryden.

Pokeweed, American (Phytolacca americana): The Jekyll and Hyde Plant

If a nice-looking plant could attract scads of birds, make a great mess of greens, treat cancer, AIDS, herpes, bad breath and more, and revolutionize the solar energy industry on the side, wouldn’t you want it in your backyard?

All of these claims and more have been made for the American Pokeweed (Phytolacca americana), an imposing perennial common in disturbed, fallow and edge areas, routinely growing taller than 6-8 feet, with large, oblong leaves and reddish stems at maturity.  It’s also known as poke root, poke salad (or poke sallet), poke berry, poke, inkberry, cancer root, American nightshade, pigeon berry and other names. The starring feature of Pokeweed is the flower cluster, which can host flowers, immature green berries and mature, shiny red berries all on the same clump, and there are many clumps per plant, flowering from May on into the fall.  It dies back to its very large taproot each winter and re-emerges each spring.  It is very insistent about that.

The toxins in Pokeweed, depending on what source you’re working from, range from deadly to mild.  They are usually concentrated in the roots, berries and seeds and include an alkaloid (phytolaccine), a resin (phytolaccatoxin), and a saponin (phytolaccigenin). Their effects can range from embarrassing to very nasty, including diarrhea, vomiting, internal bleeding, rapid heartbeat, convulsions, and much more, up to and including death.  Blanching in changes of water eliminates most of the toxins from young leaves and stems, but caution is called for. 

It has been used for inks and dyes, making a beautiful red color, and is being studied for potential treatments for cancer and various viral diseases, among other ailments.

One of its newest uses is in the field of solar energy generation.  It seems a red dye made from the mature berries can be used to coat fiber-based solar cells, increasing their efficiency in converting sunlight into electricity. 

The cache is a small,"small" camoed pill bottle, that is tied in. This one, you have to push down the tab on the bottle, to open and close the lid. It holds only a tiny plastic zip lock bag with a rolled log, that is held tight with a rubber band. Please keep track of it all, so you can replace it as found. BYOP and no tweezers, please. They ruin the plastic.