POKEWEED FAMILY 75 



POKEWEED FAMILY (Phytolaccaceae) 



Shrubby plants. Leaves alternate, entire. Corolla lacking. 

 Sepals 4 or 5, petal-like. Fruit a berry or an achene. 



Bloodberry (Genus Rivina) 



This relative of the common pokeweed resembles that 

 plant in habit, but is of much smaller growth, with slender 

 racemes of little pink and white flowers, which are fol- 

 lowed by bright red berries. It is not uncommon in the 

 borders of thickets, and under the name of bloodberry is 

 sometimes listed in florists' catalogues. 



Bivina humilis. Flowers very small, many, in racemes. 

 Sepals 4, white tipped with rose. Stamens 4. Plants much 

 branched, 1-2 ft. tall. Leaves broadest near base, pointed, 

 1-4 in. long. In woods and thickets. Blooming all the year. 

 Fla. to Texas and Ark. 



Pokeweed and Skunk-Bush (Genera Phytolacca and 



Petiveria) 



A pokeweed, Phytolacca rigida, is common in waste 

 places, where the stout reddish stems are conspicuous. It 

 differs from the northern P. decandra in its more compact 

 racemes, which are erect in fruit, instead of drooping. It 

 also grows in hammocks, and sometimes becomes a small 

 tree. The small white flowers have five sepals and ten 

 stamens. The fruit is a small purple berry. 



The ill-scented skunk-bush, Petiveria alliacea, one to 

 four feet tall, with small greenish flowers in wandlike 

 spikes four to twelve inches long, grows in thickets in the 

 peninsula. The fruit is a small achene armed with re- 

 flexed spines. 



