pokeweed

I saw a lot of this pokeweed -- Phytolacca americana -- growing along the roadside that summer. I didn't realize that "poke salad" was a staple of the rural South, and that due to its toxicity must be boiled multiple times before eating. Nor was I aware of the 1968 song "Polk Salad Annie" written by Tony Joe White and made famous by Elvis Presley.