We have lots of these plants along our walk and today's shot shows most of the berries have fallen off. Here's what I found out today:
Poison Control gets a lot of calls about children who ate purple berries. Usually, they picked pokeberries growing in their yards. The tell-tale clue is purple stains in and around the mouth, on their hands, and on their clothing.
To a child, pokeberries look like grapes: clusters of purple berries hang from stems, usually at a child's level. Adults can easily tell pokeberries from grapes by their red stems, which don't look like woody grapevines at all.
Pokeweed is a shrub with multiple red stems. Individual plants may be a few feet tall or adult height. In the spring, young poke leaves are cooked as "poke salad"; leaves must be boiled and drained twice to be eaten safely. During the summer, clusters of white flowers turn into green berries. By August, many or most of these berries have become shiny and purple.
