FINCHforum

Its growing in my yard where seed falls from one of my flights. The seeds inside the hull are blackberry color. Black and purpleish.

Poisonous but birds do eat them...........

The pokeweeds, also known as poke, pokebush, pokeberry, pokeroot, polk salad, polk salat, polk sallet, inkberry or ombú, comprise the genus Phytolacca, perennial plants native to North America, South America, East Asia and New Zealand. Pokeweed contains phytolaccatoxin and phytolaccigenin, which are poisonous to mammals. However, the berries are eaten by birds, which are not affected by the toxin because the small seeds with very hard outer shells remain intact in the digestive system and are eliminated whole.

So do they have any nutritional value to finches?

JohnBoy wrote:So do they have any nutritional value to finches?

Depends.. do you have any finches you need to off?

Finch Fry wrote:

JohnBoy wrote:So do they have any nutritional value to finches?

Depends.. do you have any finches you need to off?

What is that suppose to mean?

JohnBoy wrote:So do they have any nutritional value to finches?

I don't think so. The bird is probably just a mechanism for the distribution of the seed.

Would finches just swallow the seeds while eating the berries since they usually husk seeds before eating them?

JohnBoy wrote:

Finch Fry wrote:

JohnBoy wrote:So do they have any nutritional value to finches?

Depends.. do you have any finches you need to off?

What is that suppose to mean?

Its a joke

That definition came out of the encyclopedia. I am sure it was referring to wild birds.
I personally would have it no where near my finches...............

could make thier beaks grow funny (now that is just a joke )

Anyone remember the song 'Poke Salad Annie'? Late 60s or early 70s. I have poke salad plants all over my place, especially out around the barn. They can get very large. I don't think the berries would work for our finches, as they are quite large, and the birds that eat them are usually the larger birds like bluejays. People used to eat the young, tender leaves. They would boil them first, then prepare them like greens, with bacon grease and onions. Probably the fact that they were plentiful and free made them popular at the time--I doubt that many still make poke salad, except in some of the poorer, more rural areas, where people still live off the land for he most part.

Yes Sally, I remember the song and the greens On the hippie communes it was a staple

So were you a hippie, Candace? I was far too uptight and conservative--still am, I guess.

I remember that song also. I have it growing in my yard too.

Never knew what the song really meant since I grew up in Southern California.

Here is a recipe if you dare.
http://chitterlings.com/cgi-bin/chit_in ... read=29338

Don't think my finches would like or survive it.

Think I'll stick to collard greens!

I like to think that I was a conservative hippie, I would bathe in the stream and use organic coconut soap but I would still shave my legs with a disposable bic. Though most of my friends lived on the commune I always had my own house down the road... I liked my privacy and my independence too much. I believed in peace and love but I also believed that you should respect the rights of others .... I also believed that you should work for what you get in life... not freeload off those who do. I loved living in a tent and living off the land.... but preferred owning my own acreage to do it on. I always had my VW bug..... hitchhiking was too dangerous and unreliable. My greatest possesions then were my baby girl and my guitar... My sister who was a true hippie said I was a sell out...... but that's what Hippie's say when you choose to go to work. I hungered for more than Poke Salad and tofu

Sally wrote:Think I'll stick to collard greens!

Yum, me too. Won't be long before we can plant some in our garden.