I’m taking you guys on a foraging adventure to see if any elderberry bushes are alive at my previous forage spot.
I also show the often confused, toxic look-alike, POKEBERRY, so you know the difference. Technically speaking, elderberries have some toxicity as well and the berries must be cooked to consume.
Many plants can have beneficial reactions in tiny dosages, but I don’t mess with it. Do your own research and decide for yourself…
Phytolacca americana is also known as pokeweed, poke berry, poke, inkberry, etc. A native plant of the eastern United States used in folk medicine as a purgative, salve, and bronchodilator. Young leaves are eaten in the rural southern United States (“poke salad”). It contains a powerful gastrointestinal irritant, phytolaccine, that can cause effects ranging from a burning sensation of the alimentary tract to severe hemorrhagic gastritis.
No, thank you. But you do you.
