The Herbarium
Part XII · Lookalikes
Field pair
Poke for elder
Pokeweed and Elderberry — take this sheet to the bed, not a guess to the kettle.
Toxic mix-upForage
Poke for elder
Purple-black berries on red stems look like a pie fruit. Pokeweed is a purge. Elder is a sambucus, and even that wants cooking.
Elderberry is a woody shrub with opposite, pinnate leaves and flat cymes. Pokeweed is an herbaceous perennial with alternate leaves, a magenta rachis, and hanging racemes. Do not juice an unknown purple berry.
The Herbarium — a teaching catalog, not a clinic. Traditional use is history, not a prescription. USDA 6b dates are a week either way, not a promise. Do not eat, drink, or harvest a plant you cannot name.