Poke Greens

I remember years ago going out with my parents and grandparents to pick greens in the Spring. Poke, Creecy (Wintercress), and Mustard. Poke Salet is another early Spring arrival. The best place to find poke greens is right along the edge of old mountain roads (gaswell, stripmine). Do not be tempted by its delicacy to use poke for salads in a raw form. Uncooked pokeweed can be violently cathartic and cause severe poisoning.

Pokeweed ( Phytolacca americana ) is a hardy perennial through most of the middle and southern states. It likes rich soil with plenty of moisture, humus and organic matter are ideal conditions it will grow to shrub-like proportions, six feet tall with branches spreading over an equal area. Given room, poke is an attractive plant with dark green leaves brightened at almost every axile by a tassel of yellowish white blossoms. The blooms are followed by clusters of berries that change from green to red and finally turn a rich, royal dark purple in the fall.

It is these berries that give pokeweed its less familiar name of “Inkberry.” During the Civil War many a letter home was written by a soldier boy who fashioned his own quill from a wild turkey feather and squeezed the juice from ripe pokeberries to provide the ink. Some of these letters, legible as the day they were written, can be found in museums today, attesting to the permanence and enduring qualities of inkberry juice.

An interesting thing about Pokeweed is that a substance found in it known as PAP or Pokeweed Antiviral Protein has been found to destroy the Aids virus. It is currently being tested in government approved clinical tests. Pokeweed has been used by Native Americans and folk healers for centuries as a treatment for cancer, herpes, liver problems, and many other health problems.

I don’t have any pics of the full size plant but I will get some in the near future.