In parts of Alaska, where I grew up, the term “Poochki” is used to denote a plant that I THINK is Western Water Hemlock (Cicuta douglasii).
This is a common and poisonous plant in parts of Alaska, called “Indian Rhubarb” locally when I was growing up in Southeastern Alaska. If the juice of this plant gets on your skin it causes a patchy, itching rash, and if it gets on your skin in concentrated form on a hot day it may cause water blisters and permanent scarring. I have ridges of scars on my back from cutting it with a sickle in our front yard as a teen, tossing the juice up on my back on a hot day.
However, this common local plant was also called “Poochki” by my grandmother, an Alaska resident since she was 3 years old (1887). I have tried discover the origin of this term, which I have not heard used often. I checked my Russian dictionary and found nothing in the ballpark, either in Cyrillic or by looking up English words like “celery.” I also checked a dictionary of Chinook, the old trading language spoken extensively throughout the Pacific Northwest in the 19th Century (my grandmother spoke it a bit). No results.
Finally, I found the term used and explained on a poetry site online by one Bobbie Oskolkoff, of Ninilchik, Alaska, which is on the Seward Penninsula far from Southeastern Alaska.
Oskolkoff claims this, in defining the term, having used it in one of his poems.
“Poochki is a Ninilchik word for ‘wild celery,’ apparently derived from the Russian word for ‘bunches of flowers.’ The large whitish heads of flowers on these tall plants with stalks (that look much like celery) are striking.”
I still can’t find “Poochki” in my Russian dictionary under “bunches.” I only get “bouquet,” in Cyrillic.
Can any Russian speaker provide a definitive source for this word?
From your description of the plant, it looks more likely to be Heracleum Mantegazzianum. Russian Wikipedia seems to give its name as something like “Borsjtjevik”. Not totally like “Poochki”, but maybe there is a slight resemblance?
(I don’t speak Russian myself.)
Pushki is the Cow Parsnip Heracleum maximum, also known as Indian Celery. It is often confused with the Cicuta species Western Water Hemlock and Spotted Water Hemlock. The plants that scarred your adolescence was very likely one of these. Heracleum Mantegazzianum, Giant Hogweed aka Giant Cow Parsnip is also a candidate, though one would think you’d have mentioned it if the plants had been taller than you.
I don’t speak Russian either, but searching for “пучки” returns articles on beams of light and pictures of women with their hair in buns, braids, and topknots, so “bundle” seems like the better translation. It certainly seems a likely derivation.
I’m sure that I have my Russian origin; it makes perfect sense.
Regarding the exact plant at issue: I’ve never fully understood exactly which plant of several I’ve found listed and described on various websites is the one we called “Indian Rhubarb” growing up.
It was sometimes as tall as we were as kids, had white “bunches” of cauliflower-like flowers at the top, but (IIRC) had large, single, technicolor-green leaves that I remember as tri-lobed. In the Fall it rotted away, leaving fields of dry hollow “tubes,” off-white stalks, which broke easily and which we used as spears or swords. Maybe that narrows it down a bit, too.
It appears my grandmother was applying the colloquial name (which she pronounced as “Poochki”) of a similar but more benign species to the one that could do you harm.
Time to go to the books and read up in detail on all of the plants named.
It’s a portmanteau word: like submarine, “podvodnaya lodka” (подводная лодка) becomes contracted into “podlodka” (подлодка) as common slang.
Here, “poochok,” (пучоk): a bundle or bunch, coupled to parsley, “petrushki” (петрушки), as in “poochok petrushki” (пучок петрушки) would become as a plural portmanteu word “Poochki” (пучки) or “Pooshki.”
If that’s correct, the only mystery left is where my grandmother picked it up in Southeast Alaska. I remember now that she had a long connection with the local Russian Orthodox priest (Bishop, in fact, I think) in some capacity of singing (at which she was a professional). I’d bet she got the term from him.
You overthink… “пучки” is plural of “пучок”. It’s really nothing more. The word can mean bunch/bundle, can mean bouquet (well, small bouquet, usually of wildflowers), or “burst” if used in nuclear physics in conjunction with the accelerator collision results interpretation.
If someone in Alaska (where there is strong Russian influence, historically) used the generic word to describe a specific plant, that is a very regional thing, and could be only confined to one town/village or even one family.
Thanks for the clarifications on the term itself and the usage that could be expected with it. This is very interesting to me. It’s one of those things that stick in your head for years and you always wish you had a definitive answer to it. That’s why I gravitate to “Straight Dope” in the end. There’s always a chance someone will know the answer.
Yes, Alaska has a deep Russian influence; I used to wander the Territorial Museum as a boy looking at the many Russian artifacts of all sorts on display, including muskets, a sugar loaf for tea, eating utensils, and church Icons. Within the past few years, a Native leader donated a Russian militia coat from the early 1800’s to the new State Museum, presented to that family and carefully preserved over generations as a symbol of that family’s local prestige: an astonishing artifact.
Around every river and canal their power is growing. They infiltrate each city with their thick dark warning odour. Long ago, in the Russian hills, a Victorian explorer found the regal Hogweed by a marsh. He captured it and brought it home. Strike by night! They are defenceless. They all need the sun to photosensitise their venom. Botanical creature stirs, seeking revenge. Soon they escaped, spreading their seed, preparing for an onslaught, threatening the human race. Heracleum mantegazziani