Phytolacca americana (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Phytolacca americana L.

Protologue: Sp. pl. 1: 441 (1753).

Family: Phytolaccaceae

• Phytolacca decandra L. (1763).

• Pokeweed (En)
• Raisin d'Amérique, morelle à grappe (Fr)
• Laos: kub nyuj (Hmong)
• Vietnam: thương lục.

Originating from North America, now cultivated worldwide and sometimes naturalized. In South-East Asia particularly in Indo-China.

The roots in particular have numerous medicinal uses in Indo-China; they are also used in Chinese medicine. Young shoots are cooked and eaten as a vegetable. The red fruits can be used to colour wine and foods, but the toxic substances must be removed. P. americana is a common ornamental in temperate climates.

• A perennial branched herb up to 3 m tall, often with purplish stems, roots tuberous.
• Leaves elliptical to ovate-lanceolate, up to 30(-40) cm × 12 cm.
• Flowers in racemes generally longer than leaves, bisexual, stamens about 10, in 1 whorl, carpels about 10, united in fruit.
• Fruit a berry, subglobose, 1.2 cm in diameter, 10-lobed, dark red, in racemose infructescences.

P. americana occurs in Laos up to 2000 m altitude. In Indo-China it is a relic of former cultivation for the dye from the fruits. The plant is often distributed by birds which eat the fruits.

33, 47, 57, 70. Vegetables

80, 298, 390, 424, 425, 436, 450, 507, 538, 590, 703, 755, 797, 816, 900, 1035, 1057, 1298, 1356, 1660. Medicinals

• Razali Yusuf