Plants I shouldn't like, but do

[conuly]

This is pretty self-explanatory, it's a list of plants I probably shouldn't like, but really do.

First up, ornamental porcelain berry. It's a nasty, invasive plant. It's all over the Island, which means it's all over my yard, which means that when I bother to care I spend a lot of time yanking it up.

But it's so pretty, and the girls love eating the berries. (Every time they find out about another edible plant, they fall in love with it.)

Pokeberry. It's not invasive, but it sure does like to spread. I know that it's almost impossible to grub up out of the dirt. I know that the plant is toxic (the leaves are "non-poisonous" only on a technicality, and I sure am not boiling them a dozen times!) and that it's a carcinogen. And you can be sure I know it stains! But it's so pretty in the fall with its black berries on bright fuchsia stems, and the neon green leaves. It's a nice change of pace from brown and orange and red and yellow. It's purple!

Nightshade. Jenn seems to think it's amazing that I know what it looks like. I think it's amazing nobody else does, it's another plant that's all over the place. We've got this type, and the type with the black berries as well. I *do* pull this up when I see it, but I stop and admire the flowers first. They're so small and dainty.

Comments

[steorra]

I've been seeing that last plant around and half wondering if it might be nightshade. Now I know! It is pretty.

[redbird]

Can you ask the girls what porcelain berry tastes like?

There's a lot of the stuff around here, too, but I hadn't known it as edible, just colorful and invasive. (Parks is trying to get rid of it, because in a low-key long-term way they're trying to get non-native plants out of Inwood Hill Park, but it's easier to cut non-native mulberry trees than to remove porcelain berry or morning glory.)

[conuly]

I can tell you myself, it doesn't taste like much of anything. Still, it's very pretty, you could sprinkle one or two on a salad to make it look interesting.

[marveen.livejournal.com]

We have woody nightshade all over up here too--the little red berries look like tiny tomatoes, giving you the clue you need to figure it out.

I tried so hard to bring poke back from MS, but it died on the way. I don't suppose y'all could send some over here express mail....? The berries yield a lasting dye and ink (there are letters written during the War Between The States in pokeberry ink that are still unfaded).

[conuly]

I believe the Declaration of Independence was written with pokeberry ink, wasn't it?

If it's native to where you are now, I don't mind drying some berries and sending them to you, or getting the seeds out and sending those, whichever you think is best.

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

I was just coming in to say, pokeberry makes a lovely magenta ink. You can eat poke greens in the spring when they're very young and tender, but in all honesty, they don't taste good enough to be worth the trouble if you have better stuff to eat.

I love the flowers of woody nightshade. The berries can be used to make an analgesic salve, but, again, it's a lot of bother to make something that isn't as good as the readily-available alternatives.

[marveen.livejournal.com]

...if'n it wuz native hyere, I wouldnta tried to bring it back.

It isn't native, and I planned to treat it the same way I do English ivy--in pots, carefully guarded. (Anyone up here who plants English ivy in the GROUND is a damn fool.)

[conuly]

It could be native but just not very common, couldn't it?

Send me your address via email and I'll do my best. I can't promise that the seeds will grow, of course :)