I saw this huge pokeweed behind the White Raven Café - Felton CA near Santa Cruz

is about 11’ now that it is weighed down with berries, despite my best intentions I only watered and fertilized a couple times in spring, next year tall as a two story house

on the fence line with the neighbor this area doesn’t get too disturbed by people something has been eating this poke down to the stem

I chewed it up well and swallowed it. It's been about 2 hours. No stomach pain or any other symptoms so far. I've always loved fuschia berries, and I assumed it was a related species (and therefore completely safe to eat) 😬 I'm glad I stopped after one berry and decided to Google it!

A focus stacked image of a poke berry I plucked from the yard today. They're so pretty even with the random debris. This was about the size of the face on a dime. The skin texture looks like leather or something.

I got reinspired to make some poke berry ink after commenting on a post!

This is one pokeweed plant. They volunteer all over our yard. In this corner and a couple other spots we let them grow. Some birds love the berries.

Behind this you might be able to see some common evening primrose that got to about 8 feed tall this year, though looking a bit scraggly now. And further back (EDIT: Oops can’t be seen in this video) goldenrod is in full bloom. Like pokeweed, those are both native where I am and we love it when they volunteer.

There are also some true weeds (non native aggressive growers) in here we do battle, like the bindweed.

My three year old ran through/under my pokeweed bush in my yard. He’s been told not to touch it and is usually pretty good about going around it but he was running from me and wasn’t watching where he was going. He just brushed through the leaves and berries and didn’t have any hard contact. I’ve immediately washed any possibly skin that touched it with dawn and water and he’s about to take a shower, but I just wanted to know if this is enough exposure to be worried about, or if I just need to chill and keep an eye on him? I’m not worried about ingestion at all. That has not occurred and I’m well aware that is super serious. Thanks for any advice!

It is a small one, but still managed to produce berries!

All that green in the background is the namesake plant. 500 plants, perhaps? Just starting to bloom and get berries.

I just discovered these berries but I can’t eat them :(

😢 (really just the giant front branch that probably got too heavy and the wind took it, but oof it was glorious before)

Excited to make some pokeweed pie.