Poke Salet

The pokeweed (Phytolacca americana) berries in our backyard are just starting to ripen. We have observed this in three different ways: actually seeing the dark purple ripened fruit, finding our deck dotted with dark purple bird scat (poop), and by finding dark purple stains on our dog’s white fur.
Pokeweed is a large herbaceous plant with big leaves, a stout reddish trunk, widely branching reddish stems, and elongated clusters of small white flowers that later turn into drooping clusters of dark purple berries. It is a very attractive plant that is native to the southeastern US. It can grow up to 12 ft tall, looking more like a tree than an herbaceous plant.

It is an important food source for birds. While the berries are poisonous to humans, they are very popular with local and migrating songbirds, especially robins, towhees, mockingbirds, catbirds, thrushes, and cedar waxwings.

The berries begin to ripen in summer and plant will retain them throughout winter even as it begins to die back. This provides the backyard birds with one type of natural food source throughout the fall and winter.

References:
Floridata