Phytolacca americana L.
American Nightshade, American Pokeweed, American pokeweed, American spinach
Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.
Summary
Phytolacca americana, also known as American pokeweed, pokeweed, polk salad, poke sallet, pokeberry, dragonberries, pigeonberry weed, and inkberry, is a poisonous, herbaceous, perennial plant in the pokeweed family Phytolaccaceae. This pokeweed grows 1 to 3 metres. It has simple leaves on green to red or purplish stems and a large, white taproot. The flowers are green to white, followed by berries, which ripen through red to purple to almost black and are a food source for songbirds such as gray catbird, northern mockingbird, northern cardinal, and brown thrasher, as well as other birds and some small nonavian animals.
Text from Wikipedia, “Phytolacca americana”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.
About the genus · Phytolacca
Phytolacca is a genus of perennial plants native to North America, South America and East Asia. Some members of the genus are known as pokeweeds or similar names such as pokebush, pokeberry, pokeroot or poke sallet. Other names for species of Phytolacca include inkberry and ombú. More on Wikipedia ›
The opening of Wikipedia, “Phytolacca”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.
At a glance
Also known as Phytolacca americana var. huadongensis X.H.Li; Phytolacca americana var. lancifolia H.Walter; Phytolacca decandra L.; Phytolacca vulgaris Crantz.
Cultivation
Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (March, May to October and December in the northern hemisphere).
This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.
The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (836 mm of 1175 mm) takes 8 months, March, May to October and December. Mean temperature moves 20.0 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: November to April, June and September.
Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.
Rain Habitat rain 1175 mm a year, wettest July at 117 mm, driest February at 80 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
1175 mm a year at the habitat, 836 mm of it March, May to October and December. Wettest month July at 117 mm, driest February at 80 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 947 mm to 1480 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).
CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.
Light Open sky over the habitat: 16 to 40 mol/m²/day.
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
Open sky over the habitat: 16 to 40 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 11, the highest 90th-percentile month 44).
CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.
Warmth and air Cold floor -6.5 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -6.5 °C, the absolute minimum -16.3 °C, about 45 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 41.0 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 2.9 °C in January (across the envelope cells -5.3 °C to 11.4 °C), warmest day 31.4 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -6.5 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).
NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.
Relative humidity at the habitat: 56 to 60% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.
CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.
The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.
Climate across the habitat
Figures by month
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day °C | 12 / 3–20 | 14 / 5–21 | 18 / 10–23 | 23 / 16–27 | 27 / 21–30 | 30 / 26–32 | 31 / 28–34 | 31 / 27–34 | 28 / 24–31 | 23 / 17–27 | 18 / 11–24 | 13 / 5–21 |
| Night °C | 3 / -5–11 | 5 / -4–13 | 8 / 0–15 | 12 / 6–17 | 17 / 11–21 | 21 / 16–23 | 23 / 19–25 | 23 / 18–25 | 19 / 15–23 | 14 / 9–20 | 9 / 3–16 | 4 / -3–13 |
| Rain mm | 85 / 50–124 | 80 / 57–135 | 100 / 72–136 | 88 / 64–116 | 106 / 69–140 | 115 / 100–197 | 117 / 60–193 | 108 / 54–200 | 104 / 76–178 | 95 / 74–130 | 86 / 55–124 | 91 / 55–128 |
| DLI | 17 / 13–22 | 22 / 19–27 | 29 / 26–33 | 36 / 32–39 | 38 / 37–42 | 40 / 38–42 | 39 / 38–44 | 35 / 34–40 | 31 / 27–33 | 25 / 21–27 | 18 / 14–23 | 16 / 11–20 |
| RH % | 58 / 57–60 | 58 / 56–60 | 57 / 55–59 | 56 / 54–59 | 58 / 56–61 | 59 / 57–63 | 60 / 55–64 | 60 / 54–64 | 59 / 55–63 | 58 / 56–61 | 58 / 57–59 | 59 / 57–60 |
Each figure is the median across the 526 grid cells holding the 617 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1130:1718 (33.475, -94.075). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -16.3 °C, 1st-percentile night -6.5 °C, 99th-percentile day 41.0 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 526 distinct grid cells holding the 617 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1130:1718 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 33.50_-94.375, lapse-corrected +1 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 105 m (cell mean).
Natural habitat
Photographs
Photographs: (c) Sandy Wolkenberg, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); no rights reserved · CC0; (c) sblumen, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) mel letterman, some rights reserved (CC BY) (4).
Photographs: iNaturalist and GBIF media did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.
Papers naming this species
Works whose title or abstract names Phytolacca americana, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.
Related
Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.
Itea virginica Virginia sweetspire
Magnolia virginiana Beaver-wood
Yucca filamentosa Adam's Needle
Malus angustifolia narrow-leaved crabapple
Baccharis halimifolia Consumption-weed
Aesculus parviflora Bottlebrush BuckeyeOther Phytolacca 2 in the reference
History & registers
Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)wcvp.distribution answeredgbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence search APIclimate answeredwikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skippedinat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skippedinat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)gbif.media did not answercarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: api.gbif.org not asked: offline re-derivationopenalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skippedEvery upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 5 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.