It’s really hard to take a photograph of the Virginia native perennial pokeweed. Towering alongside a field of corn and a no parking sign near the Spotyslvania Battlefield, I tried composing a scenic view into the evening sun, hoping to highlight the berries. It might be a bit easier if I wait for the berries to ripen and turn deep magenta in August and September. And it would, of course, be much easier to photograph the wondrous pokeberry plant if I could cut a few branches and arrange them into a still life vignette. But—and I just learned this—pokeweed is poisonous to humans. According to my reading, birds, insects and many animals are immune the toxins of pokeweed and so the plant is a great source of food for wildlife.
I took this photo with my Pentax K-1000 using Kodak Portra 400 film. I’ll try again later this summer and into early fall. It’s a photo worth pursuing. Like mimosa, orange trumpet vine, milkweed, and roadside daylilies, pokeweed is part of the rich landscape of Virginia flora.
It is through place that we put out roots . . . —Eudora Welty