{"id":64764,"date":"2026-04-23T13:37:31","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T03:37:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/?p=64764"},"modified":"2026-04-23T13:37:31","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T03:37:31","slug":"elderberries-vs-pokeweed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/?p=64764","title":{"rendered":"Elderberries vs Pokeweed"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Elderberries<\/p>\n

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Elderberry picking goes wrong when the bag comes home full of pokeweed instead.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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The berries look similar at a glance. The stems give it away before the berries ever could.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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– Elderberry \u2014 tiny, BB-sized, in broad flat clusters that fan out like an umbrella. Thin woody stems with visible bark<\/div>\n
– Pokeweed \u2014 pea-sized, hanging in long drooping lines like a grape cluster. Thick fleshy stems stained magenta-red with no bark at all<\/div>\n
– Elderberry leaves are compound with multiple leaflets branching opposite each other \u2014 pokeweed leaves are large, simple, and alternate along the stem<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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If the berries hang in a long line off a thick red stem, that’s pokeweed. Don’t eat it \u2014 the plant is not edible at any stage.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Check the stems first. The berries can fool you. The stems can’t.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Elderberry picking goes wrong when the bag comes home full of pokeweed instead. The berries look similar at a glance. The stems give it away before the berries ever could. – Elderberry \u2014 tiny, BB-sized, in broad flat clusters that fan out like an umbrella. Thin woody stems with visible bark – Pokeweed \u2014 pea-sized, … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Elderberries vs Pokeweed”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[137,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-64764","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gardening","category-general-interest"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64764","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=64764"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64764\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":64766,"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64764\/revisions\/64766"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=64764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=64764"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=64764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}