September 14, 2009

No Clue

Found on my shoreline walk and in town -Any body know what this lovely wild plant/shrub is???

6 comments:

Teri said...

I don't know either but i love how you did it!

Beth said...

I believe it is a mature "poke weed" plant. It's my understanding that the mature plant is poisonous, but the immature plant (although I wouldn't try it...)can be eaten. Remember the song from the 70's "Poke Salad Annie"?. Now I'll have to "google" it to make sure I'm correct. Your work is beautiful!

Kellie Marian Hill said...

yep, seconding Beth- its poke weed! the leaves of the young plants can be eaten like collards, but you have to change the water twice while cooking, to be careful :) Lovely sketch, as always!

Carole Baker said...

It's been 40 years since I lived in Georgia, but I remembered it as poke.... glad to get the confirmation. Nice rendering.

Dawn said...

As others have mentioned it's poke salad. The young greens are good if you pour out the first water that you boil them in. They are full of vitamins, a good spring addition to the diet. It's is bit strong tasting. That's the reason to pour out the first water.

I've also heard of people frying the young stems like okra.

The berries are very poisonous. My son ate a few and we had to give him ipecac syrup. That was not a fun evening.

Dawn said...

I meant to add that you did a wonderful job sketching the berries. I recognized it immediately.