Pokeweed Grows in New York City

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N.Y. / REGION | 
N.Y.C. NATURE
The Vegetarian’s Puffer Fish
By DAVE TAFT
OCT. 5, 2017
​The New York Times

Pokeweed is at its most beautiful in early autumn. It is also at its most toxic. From its lovely purple-black berries to the very tip of its stout, white taproot, the plant is poison.
Consequently, it may seem strange that pokeweed is avidly sought out as a wild edible.

Songs have been written extolling pokeweed’s virtues. In fact, no less than Elvis Presley and Tom Jones covered Tony Joe White’s “Polk Salad Annie” — a song about more than just eating poke salad. I only hope Annie was harvesting and cooking her greens in the early spring.
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At the point when its shoots are only a few inches tall, pokeweed can be harvested and boiled to make a basic cooked vegetable. But as the plant matures, the three-inch shoots grow to a towering, treelike plant with spreading bright magenta stems. These you do not want to eat

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