Phytolacca americana

Phytolacca americana, American Pokeweed, is a herbaceous perennial with a large shrubby habit, rapidly growing from dormancy to a robust plant up to 2m or more. It has large attractive foliage and racemes of white flowers followed by large open infructescences - usually pendent in form - consisting of many green berries that ripen through to crimson before turning purple and black.

Phytolacca americana will grow in any soil but appreciates a rich well-drained substrate and plenty of water throughout the growing season. Often found growing in waste spaces in the American southwest it is often considered nothing more than a poisonous weed in those states where its growth is not usually restricted by an annual frost. It is however more valued as an ornamental in those cooler temperate states where it becomes herbaceous and in the UK makes a dramatic and attractive ornamental.