I read the term ‘poke-cherry juice’ in a passage dating from the US Civil War or around that time. I hadn’t seen the term before. Is it a certain species of cherry or an ordinary cherry prepared in a certain way. I couldnt find any definition for ‘poke cherry’ or ‘poke-cherry juice’
The only reference I could find on the internet was a line from Teddy Roosevelt’s autobiography, describing using them as kids to stain their skin darker while playing at being Indians.
So my guess is pokeweed.
nice one
Thanks Johnny_Bravo. That makes sense.
The passage I read reads…“and sometimes playing Indians in too realistic manner by staining ourselves (and incidentally our clothes ) in liberal fashion with poke-cherry juice.”
That’s the same line I found.
I have seen one or two plant catalogues that call Prunus padus or the bird cherry tree a type of “poke cherry”.
Phytolacca americana or pokeweed, a herbaceous (and highly toxic) plant, is sometimes called “pokeberry” (or “inkberry”, or a number of other names); I believe Johnny_Bravo that it might sometimes have been called “poke-cherry”, but it really doesn’t look very cherrylike.
“Poke” (from Powhatan pocan) means the pokeweed plant, and apparently can also mean the dark purple-black color of its berries. I’d find it plausible that somebody might call the purple-fruiting bird-cherry tree “poke-cherry”, i.e., a cherry whose fruits are the same color as the pokeberries.
Honestly, OP, you would need more context about the phrase you saw mentioned. Was the source of the “poke-cherry juice” the cherrylike fruit of a tree (Prunus padus), or a cluster of dark purple berries on a herbaceous plant (Phytolacca americana)?
Or did anybody drink this “poke-cherry juice”? If so, and they survived, it’s probably the bird cherry P. padus. If they died, it’s probably P. americana.
In the passage I read the children didn’t drink it. They use it as a dye(dark red dye ) playing Indians to simulate either war paint or blood I guess.
Check this site: https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/edible/vegetables/pokeweed/growing-pokeberry-plants.htm
That cite includes this sentence:
“In fact, the berries, roots, leaves and stems are all toxic to humans.”
Once upon a time we had a huge pokeweed growing on the edge of the yard, and one afternoon I gave it a thorough spraying with Roundup.
At dinner, Ms. Napier served a big salad which we both enjoyed. Then she told me it was the pokeweed.
I nervously waited to get sick, or hear that she felt sick, knowing that if I told her I’d sprayed it, she would get hysterical. I never felt anything wrong, and she never suggested she felt funny either.
So, I don’t think the leaves plus some stems are very toxic to humans, and likewise Roundup.
All the same, I’m not about to repeat this episode.
While I don’t think the term poke-cherry is commonly used, as someone who has lived in “poke country” for much of my life, I have little doubt the passage refers to the pokeweed. The berries of which would absolutely be able to color the skin of rambunctious children looking to give themselves “Indian war paint” or what have you.
While poke salad (or “poke sallet”) is pretty common particularly in Appalachian cuisine, it generally is supposed to be prepared in a certain way or it can make you pretty sick, even without it being covered in glyphosate. For example you are not supposed to consume it in a fresh salad, but only as a cooked salad (which I think is technically the reason it is called “sallet” in its traditional form.)
Since there are almost no other references on the internet - even from contemporary sources - using the term “poke cherry,” it’s reasonable to guess this is an error of memory or transcription on the part of the author. It would be easy enough to confuse “poke berry” with “poke cherry.”
But you’re right that without further context we’re only guessing.
I’m guessing the pokeweed theories are correct, but, to throw another one out there, how about choke-cherry?
Or Native American skin color.
That would fit, too.
Thank you for this. I fought a battle against these things for years in my last yard and never knew what they were. It is good to have a name for them.
I don’t have them at my new place.
There are few weeds in my experience that spread as prolifically and are as difficult to kill off as pokeweed. They grow a monstrous taproot, and if you cut them down without removing it they will keep growing back, but the taproot is also a nightmare to dig up. They also spread like wildfire.
That being said, due to the annoyance of digging up the taproot, I usually handle patches of them by running a string trimmer through them repeatedly, never letting them grow above a few inches. This eventually starves the plant of nutrients, and it dies off, but it can take a while, and if you ever miss a week or two of trimming you have a problem again until you’ve completely eradicated the patch.
There should be even more articles about how not to grow Phytolacca americana. We’ve got a ton of it on the property (it’s even more common here than poison hemlock) and I pull out a bunch of seedlings and mature plants every year. Insanely, I grow an ornamental chartreuse-leaved version that will probably be the next noxious weed. Attractive plants, especially in fall, but promiscuous.
You’re supposed to be able to eat the young greens when cooked with at least a couple changes of water, and to make a wine that cures all ills or at least arthritis, but I have no urge to consume it, even after reading Euell Gibbons the other day on how to harvest splendid winter greens from pokeweed roots stored in soil in one’s cool basement.
That made me curious (as I sit outside in the shade reading this) how far away the nearest poke plants are. A glance around shows—maybe 8 feet? These are small, early-season growth, though, only maybe 4 feet tall).
And yes, I absolutely grew up around people eating the leaves and have even prepared it nyself even though I never ate it. It isn’t a big deal. You just boil the heck out of it, changing the water 2 or 3 times.
That’s the part that makes eating poke greens seem especially unattractive. After you boil the heck out of something like that, it’s bound to be mush with most of the nutrients cooked out of it. Sounds like survival food at best.