Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Wildlife Management Pokeweed for Wildlife?

The berries are just starting to form on our pokeweed, so if I need to eradicate some, now is the time to do it.

However, I believe it is a net positive for the wildlife at our property. The bees love the flowers while in bloom, and the songbirds love the berries in the fall.

I have not observed quail, pheasant, or deer eating the plants, but the literature says they all do like pokeweed.

Unfortunately, the leaves, berries, and especially the roots are toxic to humans and to some livestock. Also, the seed bank lasts a very long time. For example, if I rototill behind the tractor to plant trees, pokeweed frequently comes up in the disturbed ground.

The pokeweed does spread along our barbed wire fence lines, but is not invasive in either our tallgrass prairie native grass fields, or in our wheat field.

Question for the forum: Anyone have negative impacts from pokeweed at their property?


Link to article with good pictures. (Pokeweed may have some different local names.)

Pokeweed Article

I've seen it but never knew the name of it. Never had a negative impact to date but if I see it in the path of the mower.....it's gonna get cut!

You can eat it. just make sure you cook it properly. https://www.saveur.com/poke-sallet/

And don't let a gator get your granny.

Birds are dropping the seeds in your fence lines.

Gaors are only a problem if your name is "Poke salad Annie "

correction, Gators.

Around here pokeweed grows just about anywhere that isn't regularly mowed or grazed.
Most places it grows I don't mind having it, and like you said, the birds and bees love the stuff.
Can't say I've ever seen any kind of critter eating the leaves.
Our horses won't touch it.

All that said, if you don't want it make sure you kill it while it's young. Once it's established
the roots get huge and you can't hardly put enough weed spray on to kill it. I left one alone
for too long in my victory garden and liked to never got rid of it. Had to chop it down, wait for
new growth, spray it, wait for new growth, spray it, let it grow for awhile and chop it down again.
Then repeat that as many times as necessary until it doesn't come back.

Thanks Augie, I think your distribution is pretty close to mine.

My songbirds deposit the berries from pokeweed, poison ivy, and cedars in my fence lines. I can't get in to cut the cedars because I have a 2' tall carpet of poison ivy.

In the past, I think I have killed the pokeweed with one treatment of Crossbow with surfactant when I was spraying poison ivy. I am probably going out to the farm later this week for some projects. I think I will spray a few pokeweeds and post the results back into this thread.

glyphosate will kill it too

I thought(?) I had some "one treatment" kills with RoundUp, but couldn't remember well enough to write that in the forum.

Some grass and weeds have come up through my mulch at some of my tree plantings, so I am also taking glyphosate on my next work trip. (Will test also on mature pokeweed.)

I spray with just about any kind of herbicide. I have almost eliminated a huge, huge, crop of poison oak. Various brands of broad leaf herbicide. I bought one of the spray rigs that I use on a 4 wheeler.