Tropical pokeweed

Plants to 3 m. Leaves: petiole 0.5-6 cm; blade elliptic to obovate or rarely lanceolate, to 30 × 15 cm, base obtuse to attenuate, apex acute. Inflorescences spikes or spikelike, surpassing subtending leaves, to 30 cm; peduncle to 10 cm; pedicel 0.5-2 mm. Flowers: sepals 5, white or pink to pale reddish, broadly elliptic, equal, to 3 × 2 mm; stamens (8-)10-22(-30), usually in 2 whorls; carpels mostly 6-10, connate; ovary 6-10-loculed. Berries purple-black, 7-8 mm diam. Seeds black, thickly lenticular, 2.5-3 mm, shiny.

Flowering summer-winter. Disturbed areas, chrome ore piles; 10-1800 m; introduced; Ariz., Calif., Md.; Mexico; West Indies; Central America; South America.

Some authors (e.g., J. I. Davis 1985) include Phytolacca octandra in the synonymy of P. icosandra.

SELECTED REFERENCE

Steinmann, V. W. 1997. Phytolacca icosandra L. (Phytolaccaceae): New to the continental United States. Madroño 44: 108-109.