Pokeweed (phytolacca americana) is also known as dragonberries, inkberry and poke sallet. It has a reddish stem, green and white flowers and, in the fall purplish leaves and grape like berries. Pokeweed is native to Michigan, eastern and south North America. It is seasonally edible. In the spring the shoots and leaves of pokeweed are edible but then produce a toxin that is poisonous to humans and many mammals. Pokeweed can be found on the west end of the pond between the two sets of benches.
Pokeweed is notable for being part of a subject for the song Polk Salad Annie by Tony Joe White. The song is about a dirt poor girl named Annie with a mother in jail who survives on eating pokeweed.
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