Pokeweed Keeps Surprising Me!

[roadrunner]

When I first saw this plant growing in my garden and I identified it, I learned the the birds love the berries, so I kept it. I then learned that the flowers attract various species of hoover flies, that was a nice plus http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/galveston/beneficials/beneficial-28_hover_or_syrphid_flies.htm

Excerpt:

"Adult hover flies are important pollinators and can be found feeding at flower blossoms or around aphid colonies, where they lay their eggs. The larvae of hover flies are important predators of pests, such as aphids, scales, thrips and caterpillars.

They are rivaled only by ladybird beetles and lacewings. When hover fly larvae populations are high, they may control 70 to 100% of an aphid population. Aphids alone cause tens of millions of dollars of damage annually to crops worldwide, so the aphid-feeding hover flies are being recognized as potential agents for use in biological control."

Today I was checking out my tomatoes and I noticed tons of holes in the leaves of the pokeweed, so many that I thought that this must be a host plant for something, so I looked it up and surprise...It is a host plant for the Giant Leopard Moth https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_leopard_moth

I wonder what other surprises this plant has that is waiting to be discovered....

 

[LIcenter]

One of the surprises is, if you have to dig it up. Brutal I tell ya. I do have three or four growing in my yard, and where they are i don't mind. BUT! when you need to get rid of one, be prepared to dig, and dig deep.

 

[Beth_B]

The entire west fenceline in my side yard (which I let go wild around the edges) is pokeweed and it gets huge!

Your post made me curious so I googled. This article (and the following comments) is quite interesting!
http://nadiasyard.com/our-native-plants/american-pokeweed/

 

[roadrunner]

The entire west fenceline in my side yard (which I let go wild around the edges) is pokeweed and it gets huge!

Your post made me curious so I googled. This article (and the following comments) is quite interesting!
http://nadiasyard.com/our-native-plants/american-pokeweed/

I did once attempt to relocate one that was only about 2-3ft tall and I noticed that it did have a very good size tap root and it didn't like being transplanted. Looking at your picture of that tap root reminded me of an article I once read on "weeds" and how the ones with large tap roots are important for nutrient cycling.

BTW, I also liked the article on native gardens from the blog you linked. http://nadiasyard.com/2016/10/15/going-native/