Purple pokeberries

Poke is truly a noxious weed with the capacity to absolutely overrun an area. I should know: one of my self-appointed tasks in taking care of my neighbor's cat has been to chop down all the Poke I discovered that was trying to take over her garden. The plant's ability to make an abundance of seeds—some of them hang close to the parent to seed and reseed the neighborhood, while others are carried by birds to new venues—gives it the chance to colonize and hold an area, as well as establish beachheads in new places. You have to give Poke a grudging amount of admiration. It's definitely a success story, albeit an unbidden, and often unloved, one. Today, for the first time, I noticed that the green, fleshy fruits of the plant have started to turn purple, a sign of Poke maturity... and a sign of summer's passing. Too bad we can't eat pokeberries, which, while not as toxic as the mature foliage and the root, will make the ingester pretty ill. I'll leave the berries to the catbirds and mockingbirds, and the rest of the plant to the caterpillars that can dine on it unharmed. When it tries to invade any garden, I'll keep the clippers handy.