Tropical Pokeweed

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

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.

introduced; Ariz., Calif., Md.; Mexico; West Indies; Central America; South America.

Flowering summer-winter.

Disturbed areas, chrome ore piles; 10-1800m.

octandra: with 8 stamens

A bushy perennial, up to 1 m.

Frequent

Native to South America but now naturalized throughout the tropical regions of the world.

Phytolacca icosandra L. Syst. Xat. ed. 10. 1040. 1759
Phytolacca americana L. Sp. PI. 441. 1753.
Phytolacca octandra L. Sp. PI. ed. 2. 631. 1762.
Phytolacca mexicana Mill. Gard. Diet. ed. 8. Phytolacca no. 2. 1768.
Phytolacca triquetra Moench. Meth. Suppl. 107. 1802.
Phytolacca sessiliflora Kunth & Bouche, Ind. Sem. Hort. Berol. 1848: 15. 1S49.— Ann Sci. Xat. III.
11:230. 1849. Phytolacca octandra grandiflora Moq. in DC. Prodr. 13 : : 32. 1849. Phytolacca octandra an gusti folia Moq. in DC. Prodr. 13 ! : 32. 1849. Phytolacca longespica Moq. in DC. Prodr. 13 ! : 33. 1849. ^Phytolacca purpurascens Braun & Bouche, Ind. Sem. Hort. Berol. 1851: 13. 1852. — Linnaea 25:
297. 1853. Phytolacca Nova-Hispania Millsp. Field Mus. Publ. Bot. 2: 41. 1900. Phytolacca icosandra angustitepala H. Wait, in Engler. Pflanzenreich 4" 3 : 61. 1909. Phytolacca icosandra sessiliflora H. Walt, in Engler, Pflanzenreich 4 83 : 61. 1909.
An herb, up to 2.5 m. or more high, with angled branches; leaf-blades narrowly elliptic to ovate-elliptic or oval, 7-20 cm. long, 2.5-9.5 cm. broad, sometimes larger, acute to acuminate and often mucronate at the apex, narrowed at the base; petioles 1.5-6 cm. long, grooved above; racemes peduncled, 7-25 cm. long; rachis usually pubescent; pedicels 2-5 mm. long, or flowers subsessile; bracts and bractlets subulate; sepals greenish-white or purplish, elliptic to ovate or oval, 2.5-3.2 mm. long, 1.5-3 mm. broad, persistent in fruit; stamens 8-20; filaments 2 mm. long; anthers elliptic, 1 mm. long; ovary subglobose, 6-10-carpellary ; styles cylindric, recurved; berry depressed-globose, 6-8 mm. in diameter; seed obliquely obpyriform, 2.2-2.S mm. long, black, shining.
Type locality: Said to have come from Malabar.
Distribution: West Indies; Mexico; Central America; also in South America; recorded from the Old World.

Phytolacca icosandra, sometimes known as button pokeweed or tropical pokeweed, is a species of flowering plant found in the neotropics and introduced into the warmer areas of the western USA.

It reaches up to 3 m in height, with leaves of 10–20 cm by 9–14 cm. The flowers are produced in racemes 10–15 cm long, each flower 5–10 mm diameter, with 8-20 stamens (icosandra means "twenty stamens"). The fruit is a black berry, 5–8 mm diameter.