pretty poisonous

In honor of Halloween I've decided to celebrate October with a series of portraits of poisonous plants.

Phytolacca americana

We have a lot of Pokeweed here in South Carolina, and although I knew it was poisonous and grows like, well, a weed, I hadn't given it much thought. It turns out the US constitution was written with ink made from fermented pokeberries. Once you start looking there is a lot of information about the American pokeweed. It 's a "food and medicinal plant",  native americans used to paint arrows, feathers and even horses with juice from the berries, and although every part of the pokeweed is poisonous, it's also a popular food. Surprisingly enough, the berries are the least poisonous part .