Poke root and I have been well acquainted with each other for almost my entire life. We met quite unexpectedly for the first time when I was 2 years old. I was playing outside with my older sister and a couple of family friends who were slightly older than my sister (all older than me). For fun (theirs not mine) they fed me poke berries (widely considered to be poisonous). My mom and parent’s friends rushed me to the emergency room where the doctor had to decide whether or not to pump my stomach. They settled on induced vomiting by means of syrup of Ipequac. I suffered no ill effects (unless you count the vomiting). That was the beginning of my enduring friendship with poke. I owe my sister much gratitude for introducing me to this very amazing plant.
Poke and I became reacquainted about 11 years ago, her presence signaling the beginning of a significant healing journey for me. I like to think she reappeared, as friends do, because she knew I was going to need her strength and support, but perhaps, most especially her wisdom. She opened the door for me to step through and guarded the gate as I took deeper steps into the wilds of my own inner world, exploring truths I had never had the courage to acknowledge up until then.
When we met for the second time, she was guarding a wooded section where I liked to go on my daily walks, very majestic and very big (about 5 feet tall). I recognized her immediately, the sight of her triggering a very clear flashback, kind of like a movie scene being replayed in my head, of seeing her for the first time at the age of 2 and being forced to eat her berries. I was surprised by how clearly I remembered her, as if she was standing right before me (at 2 though and not 30). I was so grateful to see her again after all of those long years.
One thing about poke root is that she has an unexpected and unconventional beauty about her, a wild, untamed quality that kind of catches you by surprise . Her lush purple berries, her unusual flowers with the intricate detail, the big, soft blue green leaves and the red, silky, fibrous stalks. I went back to see her every morning at dawn on my walks and simply sat with her in silence and meditation. Feeling the energy descend into her roots as her stalks began to wither and fall and cold weather began to rapidly approach, turning the sky a brilliant blue absent of any traces of humidity.
This process of spending time with poke root left me with a certainty that plants have a purpose for being. They want to be of use. Through this interaction with poke, I began to see myself as a co-conspirator of sorts, or maybe the better word is a bridge. I felt a real sense of purpose and passion for helping plants be of use in the world in a powerful and respectful way.
I have a piece of every poke root I have ever harvested. I like to keep the top part where the plant attaches to the root. This piece looks to me like the top of a human heart, where the arteries connect to the heart muscle. The piece of the first root I harvested remains beside my bed on my nightstand, and I believe she watches over me while I sleep. Sleep has not always been easy or pleasant. I used to talk in my sleep (apparently I had an interesting habit of saying no a lot) and, at different times in my life, I have slept restlessly with disturbing nightmares. I used to wake up often, afraid to have my back to the door, my whole body tense. Having her root beside me at night has always made me feel safe and comforted.
You find that some plants are your close allies, guides, or teachers, meaning you have a very special connection with them. As one herbalist friend of mine says, your plant allies will do things for you, communicate with you, in ways they may not do for others people who do not have the same connected relationship. This is a very special kind of bond. After that first harvest, I tried to grow poke in my herb garden, transplanting her from another location. She died after a few weeks, I believe, because she functions best in the wild under no authority but her own (I love that about her more than I can say). After that failed attempt, though, I had a poke root plant that came up annually in a corner of my vegetable garden in the same spot. I now have a host of poke that grows in a ring around my house in various spots, like a protective ring.
Poke is a very powerful plant, and her medicine can invoke powerful reactions. In every material medica I referenced she is called toxic or dangerous or you are advised to use her only under the supervision of a skilled practitioner. Did I mention that she is cathartic laxative? In relatively small doses (ie not much more than few drops of her tinctured root), she can induce vomiting and diarrhea. For that and many other more compelling reasons, she is a plant that very much deserves the respect she is awarded.
The Berries
Her berries are a beautiful purple color that used to be used as ink. In the old materia medica (it was originally published in 1863), Resources of the Southern Fields and Forests which describes the uses of southern herbs for Civil War doctors, the author Francis Porcher, describes using poke berry ink to write that very book. The constitution was written from the ink of poke berries. In fact one of her aliases is actually Inkberry. Not to mention the purple makes a great paint for your canvas.
Her berries are used by folk herbalists medicinally to help alleviate the pain of arthritis. Imagine my surprise when I discovered the medicinal use of her berries. Given my previous experience with her berries, I had a hard time wrapping my mind around their use as medicine. The truth is that you eat the berry and spit out the seeds, as they are really the toxic part.
The Leaves
No story about poke root (especially one written by a Southern herbalist) is complete without talking about the leaves of poke root. In the South, the new growth leaves (until the plant grows to be about knee high) are eaten as green in salads and are considered to have rich nutritional value. There is even a song about poke root called Poke Salad Annie about a southern girl who likes to pick and eat poke greens. Initially written and recorded by Tony Joe White in 1969, Elvis famously covered the song, because of his love for poke greens. Traditionally the greens are boiled before eating them and, of course, cooked with fatback.
The Root
Her root has an inexplicable taste to it because you can smell and taste the slight sweetness, with underlying hint of that edgy pungency that I think is very much her signature, an essential part of her star quality. The root is a lymph and blood purifier, or what some western herbalists refer to as an alterative, indicating an herb’s ability literally to alter the state of the body’s tissues by affecting metabolism and the elimination of waste products. Herbs tend to have an affinity for particular body part or organ. Poke seems to particularly like the heart and chest area, particularly the breasts and lymph nodes in and around that area.
Indeed, poke root has an excellent reputation among herbalists for her powers as a blood purifier. Blood is the flow of life and when something happens (like trauma, emotional or physical) that causes this natural flow to freeze or shut down, the memory can be affected, and there is the possibility of serious physical and emotional health problems. Issues such as fibroids, tumors, or cysts in the breasts or reproductive organs, severe emotional disturbance or outbursts, and even breaks with consciousness. When blood freezes or becomes stagnant, one experiences sharp, stabbing pain in a fixed location, that oftentimes pain medicine can not alleviate. Literally the flow of emotions and the ability to nourish oneself is inhibited and blocked.
Poke unblocks what is obstructing the flow of life in the blood. In Alma Hutchens Indian Herbology of North American she actually describes poke as a deobstruent (an herb that removes obstructions). The root is often prepared as an oil for blocked mammary glands in the breast. I was recently quite delighted to find a fabulous description of poke online by an herbalist (www.kitchenwitch.com) who refers to her as the “nymph of the lymph.” She is used by herbalists to dissolve masses and tumors (like breast cancer), as well as for swelling and inflammation in the mammary ducts.
She is strong medicine. I think she literally helps you get down to the heart of the matter (remember she has an affinity for the heart and chest area of the body). By helping remove metabolic waste from the blood, she helps the blood and fluids nourish the skin and bodily organs. This makes her most useful in healing chronic skin conditions, especially ones characterized by swollen, red nodules.
Poke root tincture is taken internally in very low doses, usually 3-5 drops at a time. I have always been able to tolerate a much higher dosage of her tincture without the potential spaciness, nausea or vomiting that higher doses can induce. I attribute my tolerance to higher doses of poke to our early introduction and our longstanding friendship. I must say a word here about taking high dosage of poke root. There is one important thing to learn about herbalists (maybe all alchemists) is that we like to experiment with plants using our bodies as the testing ground (and I know a number of other herbalists who experiment in this way too so I consider myself to be in good company). My work with poke, and indeed any true experimentation of this kind, always happens within a context a tremendous respect for and a deep level of attunement to the plant in question, especially if that plant is considered to be toxic in any way.
I have so much heat in my system that her cooling properties tend to be soothing for me. I found that at the beginning of this journey I was able to take her in much higher doses, likely because she was clearing some of the congested heat and stagnant energy in my system, indicative of where I was emotionally at that time. Seven years into our journey together, I found that much smaller doses (really standard dosage levels) tend be all I needed to help me gain clarity and perspective rather quickly and literally calm me down when I am feeling stuck.
Larger doses, while never inducing vomiting or cathartic bowel movements, will not only loosen my stools, but I will find I have a heightened awareness of my emotions. When something triggers me, my emotions can be out of proportion to the situation, and it can be hard to stifle their free flow (especially anger). In my clinical experience, this is a characteristic of all herbs that dissolve or breakup blockages and stagnant energy. Care must always be taking with these herbs when used singly because they can stir up emotions, because they are moving energy (physical as well as emotional) that may have been blocked for years. Herbs like this can be used in formula to balance out this effect and allow for a smoother and easier flow of emotions.
I have been amazed at poke root’s effect on my long term memory. This has been significant for me because I have never been able to recall many concrete memories or moments of my childhood and adolescence. I mainly had blank spaces, black holes where other people I knew had stories and faces and connections. This had always bothered me, even terrified me at times, that I could not recall growing up. I always wondered what it was that I blocked out. One thing I noticed, is that when I started feeling safe and secure, it opened a door that my old ghosts and fears used to walk through. Throughout this period of harvesting her and using her consistently, I recovered not only memories of being sexually abused, but I also developed a time and feel for the pieces of my childhood stories I had forgotten. I noticed that I had could discern a flow of my childhood years in both space and time.
I attribute this to her ability to cleanse and purify the blood and lymph fluids. In Chinese medicine, blood and lymph are the fluids and substance of the body that nourish the organs and the skin. The blood and fluid literally are thought to contain our memories, our ancestors flow through our blood. When an emotional betrayal or event painful to the heart happens, the heart may shut down to protect itself from this information. The heart is the organ system responsible for circulating blood, and this shutting down can cause a condition known as congealed blood, which basically means the blood freezes. Emotionally this can cause something known in psychology as dissociation. Literally when someone is convinced that life is not safe, they shut off pieces of themselves. I think by helping open up the unobstructed flow of blood and fluids, literally she opens the heart to the possibilities of being alive.
Poke grows pretty prolifically in the South where I live. You can find her on the edges of forests and wooded areas. I once heard David Winston, an herbalist I respect greatly, say during a plant walk, that poison ivy guards the edges of woods and areas that are being encroached on or developed, and I think of poke root in a similar way. To many she is considered a weed, one that grows in abundance along the sides of roads and on the edges, blooming in late summer and early fall.
To me, poke embodies the warrior spirit that can face the truth, and she faces that truth by cleansing the blood, by easing the damage the original wounding inflicted. She reduces the inflammation, the swelling, and eliminates the toxins that have collected during and after the wounding. And she ultimately restores the flow and circulation of the blood that signifies freedom and ease of movement. As she restores movement and flow, she helps create an environment in which deep nourishment can occur.
