# Need some help identifying



## ChanceTheRapids (Apr 29, 2011)

I'm in North Texas, zone 8a. I have 2 of these... this one is ginormous, probably 6' in diameter. I think it may be a weed type thing, though... no earthly idea.



















Thanks for the help!!


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## dizzy (Jun 25, 2013)

Poke berry. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phytolacca_americana


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## ChanceTheRapids (Apr 29, 2011)

Thanks!!


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## Danaus29 (Sep 12, 2005)

Also known as Pokeweed and Poke salat and Poke salad.


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## TravisJ (May 3, 2014)

Poke. It's pretty good if prepared correctly and also cans well. Always double boil it to leach out the bad stuff. Also pick the younger leaves.
Double boil, strain and wash, put in a sauce pan with a little bacon and grease. Yum


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## Vickie44 (Jul 27, 2010)

Googled:


In the spring time before It gets real hot you want to harvest the leaves of the pokeweed and leave the roots alone. This is because in the spring time all the plants poison is concentrated in it's roots and has not spread throughout the plant just yet. During this time people harvest the plants leaves and cook them up just like you do collards, spinach or turnip greens. In fact poke salad, as it is called, taste identical to spinach after it is cooked. So some people have come to call this edible herb, wild spinach.

In the summer you want to stay away from the plants berries and leaves and concentrate on the root. This is because when it starts getting hotter the berries will begin to form. Once they turn purple the poison that was once concentrated in the plants roots is not concentrated in the plant itself, and not in the roots. But the safest time to harvest the roots for use is in the fall. Harvest poke root and store it for later use. Now for a word on the purple berries of the poke plant. Just when the berries ripen the juice from the berries is edible.

The seed in the berry remains poisonous so do not eat or use it for anything. History points to native Americans using the berry juice of the poke plant for a purple dye, which you can still do today.


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## Forcast (Apr 15, 2014)

when I was a kid we would paint with the berries, us, the garage,the car..........Dad was not happy!


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## hippygirl (Apr 3, 2010)

I had a LOT of it behind my garden and was "going" to harvest, but DH ran amok with the riding lawnmower, so that, as they say, was that!

Good stuff...if prepared properly.


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## handymama (Aug 22, 2014)

Always wondered if those were poke berries. There's like a million enormous plants behind the barn where it desperately needs cut down. With the scythe. Because they kill the weedeater.


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## hippygirl (Apr 3, 2010)

handymama said:


> Always wondered if those were poke berries. There's like a million enormous plants behind the barn where it desperately needs cut down. With the scythe. Because they kill the weedeater.


Oh yeah, once it gets some height, it'll bog a weedeater down time it hits it.


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