| Phytolacca (a hybrid name: Greek, phytps, plant, and French lac, or Italian lacca, lake; referring to the crimson berries). Phytolaccaceae. Ornamental herbs and woody plants; some of them yield edible parts of minor value. | | Phytolacca (a hybrid name: Greek, phytps, plant, and French lac, or Italian lacca, lake; referring to the crimson berries). Phytolaccaceae. Ornamental herbs and woody plants; some of them yield edible parts of minor value. |
| Shrubs, herbs, or trees, sometimes climbers, with angled or sub terete branches, glabrous or nearly so: lvs. alternate, sessile or mostly petiolate, acute or obtuse, entire; stipules none: fls. small, borne in erect or nodding racemes on spikes which are at first terminal but by further growth of the st. may come opposite the lvs. ; calyx of 4 or 5 persistent rounded sepals; stamens about 5-30; ovary of 5-16 distinct or connate carpels: fr. a fleshy berry: seeds 1 in each cell. — Twenty-six species as defined by Walter in Engler's Das Pflanzenreich, hit. 39 (IV. 83), published in 1909, distributed in tropical and subtropical regions, mostly in Amer., and a few in Asia and Afr., one species extending to Canada. They are plants of simple requirements in the regions where they grow, and are prop, readily by seeds. P. dioica is a very useful tree for ornament and shade in S. Calif. The common pokeweed (P. americana) is a familiar wild plant in E. N. Amer.; it is a plant of good habit, vigorous growth, and ornamental berries, and is sometimes placed in back borders and wild-gardens. Related genera in cult, are Ercilla, Rivina, Agdestis. | | Shrubs, herbs, or trees, sometimes climbers, with angled or sub terete branches, glabrous or nearly so: lvs. alternate, sessile or mostly petiolate, acute or obtuse, entire; stipules none: fls. small, borne in erect or nodding racemes on spikes which are at first terminal but by further growth of the st. may come opposite the lvs. ; calyx of 4 or 5 persistent rounded sepals; stamens about 5-30; ovary of 5-16 distinct or connate carpels: fr. a fleshy berry: seeds 1 in each cell. — Twenty-six species as defined by Walter in Engler's Das Pflanzenreich, hit. 39 (IV. 83), published in 1909, distributed in tropical and subtropical regions, mostly in Amer., and a few in Asia and Afr., one species extending to Canada. They are plants of simple requirements in the regions where they grow, and are prop, readily by seeds. P. dioica is a very useful tree for ornament and shade in S. Calif. The common pokeweed (P. americana) is a familiar wild plant in E. N. Amer.; it is a plant of good habit, vigorous growth, and ornamental berries, and is sometimes placed in back borders and wild-gardens. Related genera in cult, are Ercilla, Rivina, Agdestis. |