What is this weed? Should know but can't place it.

@Lucy68 replied that it's pokeweed
Pokeweed (Phytolacca americana)

(Lucy, I had to split this question off to it's own thread as it was not related to the OP in the other thread and I could not include your reply as there was another reply after yours that was related to that thread. I only have the option to include all following replies or nothing.)

Bummer that you didn't name the thread... "what is this plant"?
Poke is quite attractive, and the songbirds show up to eat the fruit...

A desirable native plant for a wildlife garden.

I keep a huge one behind my garage because the birds love it as stone said. I'd never seen a Cedar Waxwing before in my life, now they're here every year for the berries.

stone said:...
A desirable native plant for a wildlife garden.

Or a seriously invasive plant in places where it is not native. On the West coast this plant is a problem.

The OP doesn't give a hint as to the area or zone they're in. I'm in Zone 5 and I do have to pull up a few babies occasionally when they start growing in odd places that only come up from bird droppings. It doesn't seem to spread by runners in my zone at all though, so I wouldn't consider it invasive at all in my zone.

Hortica said: Or a seriously invasive plant in places where it is not native. On the West coast this plant is a problem.

Yep!

In my zone 7, now 8, it freezes to the ground over winter. It makes a tuberose root and will grow back here, as well as come from seed.

Native and invasive are mutually exclusive garden terms.

BONAP and USDA indicate that P. americana is native in N America, including along the W coast.
https://bonap.net/Napa/TaxonMa...
https://www.fs.usda.gov/wildfl....

It is a non-native invasive in California (and I presume in OR and WA too).
Our state agencies are on it:
https://www.cal-ipc.org/plants...
Jepson also clearly shows it is an introduction:
https://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/cg...

And just to reiterate: this plant is really poisonous! Children and pets die from it with grim regularity. Get rid of it if you have either, or it is not native to your area.

Hortica said:
And just to reiterate: this plant is really poisonous! Children and pets die from it with grim regularity.

Hmmm...
I want to see those news items...

Most kids don't pick and eat unknown berries... I grew up with poke, And never considered eating the berries...

I've had plenty of poke berry stained clothes.
There's a ton of toxic plants in the landscape... no need to single out poke...

https://georgiawildlife.com/ou...

Look it up.
Here are the books I have on the topic:

Clinical Veterinary Toxicology
G. Lorgue, J. Lechenet, Jim Riviere
Wiley-Blackwell 1996

International Poisonous Plants Checklist: An Evidence-Based Reference
D. Jesse Wagstaff
CRC Press, 2008

Handbook of Poisonous and Injurious Plants
Lewis S. Nelson, Richard D. Shih, Michael Balick
New York Botanic Garden / Springer Science, 2007

Poisonous Plants: A Handbook for Doctors, Pharmacists, Toxicologists, Biologists and Veterinarians
Dietrich Frohne, Hans Jurgen Pfander, Patrick McKinney (Editor), Inge Alford (Translator)
Timber Press, 2005

'Mind-Altering and Poisonous Plants of the World'
Michael Wink, Ben-Erik van Wyk
Timber Press 2008

We know it's toxicity, I think what stone was questioning is your statement "Children and pets die from it with grim regularity".

Here's one report I found:
"The National Poison Database System was queried for all Phytolacca americana exposures in the state of Kentucky between 2000 and 2019. After the removal of non-human cases, 1669 cases of human pokeweed exposure were reported. Patients were predominantly young in age, with a median age of 3 years reported. Exposures were generally well tolerated. 239 total adverse events were noted during the timeframe. Abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea were most common. Dermal exposures resulted in cutaneous edema, pain, and swelling. Treatments were mainly supportive, with no deaths reported during the study timeframe.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.go...

I found a death report from 2020 on OHSA.gov of a grown man eating an entire root.

This site https://www.fs.usda.gov/wildfl... states "The entire plant is poisonous causing a variety of symptoms, including death in rare cases."

Sounds like deaths are not that common from several other sites and studies I found.

I know I've read about harvesting the greens and cooking them a certain way to avoid the toxins. You have to boil them twice to get rid of the toxins, and I'm pretty sure I read you should stick to the younger leaves.

You'll find most everything except vegetables in a garden is poisonous if ingested. Who leaves toddlers alone where they're not being watched that would even give them an opportunity to eat berries and flowers and leaves? And any child older is warned to not eat unknown things. If you've got a weird dog that likes to eat everything in sight, I'd say don't grow it. But I've never had a pet that ate anything other than a few chomps of grass, I just don't see it as anything they'd be interested in.

Calif_Sue said: We know it's toxicity, I think what stone was questioning is your statement "Children and pets die from it with grim regularity".

Thank you Sue!

That statement stuck in my craw sidewise...

I'm not believing people " die from it with grim regularity".
Not w/o supporting evidence....

I once saw someone try eating a small plant raw... he spit it out pretty quick...
People and animals usually don't continue to eat stuff that tastes bad.

While people do cook it, I'm not that adventurous...
I'd rather cook stuff that is well known to be safe.

One time, I even found a recipe for wine made from the berries... Sounded like more trouble than it was worth.


mocking bird in poke bush

reckon I'll leave the poke for the bird.

More info is always good.
https://www.appalachianfeet.co...
https://www.eattheweeds.com/ta...
https://gardenandgun.com/recip...
https://www.wildabundance.net/...
https://delishably.com/foragin...
https://www.oklahoman.com/stor...
https://diggingfood.com/2018/0...
https://www.verywellhealth.com...
https://southernspaces.org/201...

That ought to cover it!

It's a start. Some very interesting info & anecdotes.