Please identify this plant

My garden is full of these plants, my Jamaican gardener says that these are edible but he doesn't know what they are called here. Does anyone know what these are<

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Reply to
General Schvantzkoph
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Reply to
General Schvantzkoph

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Reply to
Frank

I don't know this one but there are 5 or 6 plants of a similar habit that grow around the world that are locally called "spinach". Maybe if you do a google image search for spinach.

David

Reply to
David Hare-Scott

I'm in Massachusetts.

Reply to
General Schvantzkoph

You shouldn't do that, improperly cooked it is quite poisonous. The common name is poke salad. It should be boiled in at least two changes of water and then cooked to tenderness. It was once canned and sold commercially by a cannery in Arkansas, but they can't get enough pickers any more. If you get sick get to the hospital. The poison is water soluble and I believe in the oxalate group.

Reply to
Steve Peek

I hope it's not Pokeweed, the Wikipedia article claims it's poisonous.

Reply to
General Schvantzkoph

Read my comment above! IT IS POKE WEED!!!

Reply to
Steve Peek

It would help to know where you are. Don't take it as gospel but, if I saw that plant in my yard here in Florida, I'd call it "poke" and know it to be edible until the stems and petioles turn magenta. Best eaten young prepared as any other tender, mild potherb. Mature poke leaves are often bitter. Poke is a tender perennial, the roots of which survive sub-freezing temperatures but I don't know for how long. I have a couple of pokeweeds in my "yard" that are at least 10y/o; one of them is over 10' tall. This link will give you some idea what the climate's like here: If you allow these to mature and make their berries, you will become legend among migratory birds and poke will become more commonplace in your neighborhood but even with the help of birds it is not particularly aggressive. I allow volunteer poke plants to remain proximate the garden as a trap for armyworms, "tomato worms", etc. until I get tired of walking around them (they get pretty big, after a while).

Reply to
balvenieman

Was actually my first thought but pictures of mature plant looked different. This one looks the same.

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Reply to
Frank

Pokeweed becomes toxic when the stems and petiole begine turning from green colored to magenta colored. At stage, the plant is so bitter, even after prolonged cooking, that consuming a toxic quantity is not likely. The berries induce gastric distress in people but birds love them. As I indicated, pokeweed near the garden makes an excellent trap crop for all manner of crawley munchers. Here's the USDA profile and a range map: .

Reply to
balvenieman

Thanks for the info.

Reply to
General Schvantzkoph

Fortunately I had boiled the hell out of it before I ate it, boiling removes the toxins although you are supposed to boil it twice and I only boiled it once. I didn't have any symptoms but that's the last time I eat any unfamiliar plant. My gardener had told me that he eats this all the time but he is from Jamaica. I suspect that they have a different plant that looks like pokeweed.

Reply to
General Schvantzkoph

Glad to see you're still with us.

How'd it go.

Reply to
phorbin

But it does have its uses.

Reply to
Billy

to identify safe varieties on one continent and then they go mushroom picking on a different continent and they mistake a deadly variety for a similar appearing but unrelated variety from their home country. There was a case recently here in Massachusetts where some Russians poisoned themselves when they ate some Death Angel mushrooms that they found in their backyard. My father told me a similar story when I was a child about a little boy who had stolen mushrooms from a neighbors garden, that night the family had wild mushrooms that they had picked in the forest but as punishment for his crime the little boy wasn't allowed to eat any. The mushrooms were poisonous and every member of the family died except the little boy. For the last 50 years I've wondered why my father told me that story since the moral of the tale is that crime pays. I assume the reason he told me the story was because it was something that he had just read in the newspaper and not because he was conveying a twisted morality to me. My take on the story was to confine mushroom picking to the produce aisle of the supermarket. I never realized that the lesson extended to green plants also, I didn't realize that there were any deadly leafy plants growing in North America, now I know better.

Reply to
General Schvantzkoph

He probably identified it as a relative of a Jamaican variety of pokeweed.

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did a bit more poking around and it's range through several varieties runs from Canada right through South America.

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Reply to
phorbin

That's what they _all_ say. LOL. Has the sound of FLW! LOL. In preparation, you might find this worth a look:

Reply to
balvenieman

Now that you know better, please don't try the wild carrots. Some of them could be hemlock! Steve

Reply to
Steve Peek

I while back some kids camped in a river bed where I used to live and brought hot dogs to cook. They used oleander stems to cook them over the fire, they started feeling sick they went home and died the next day. It was pretty sad.

Reply to
aluckyguess

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