There's a lot of this plant at my grandparents place and nobody here knows what it is. It grows from woody bulbs underground and the entire exposed part is the stalk and leaves. They clump together and I suspect they spread by rooting new bulbs underground. The bigger they get, the more red it is at the bottom, and as they approach the bulb it's almost an oniony purple and white. They smell like how you'd expect a garden weed to smell. They can get pretty big, the biggest one being about 45 inches (114 centimeters) tall, though I don't know if they get bigger. Above is a picture of the clump, a picture of the bottom of the big one, a picture of a smaller one (16 inches/40 centimeters) on the table, and grandpa for scale. Location is southeast Kansas.
by Educational_Emu_9157
9 Comments
Horseradish?
Parsnips?
If it starts to grow purple berries it’s definitely r/itsalwayspokeweed
Snap the stem and take a picture. I just posted something that looks similar. My plant is pokeweed and is toxic.
I’m voting pokeweed.
That’s pokeweed.
Check out the song, Polk Salad Annie by Tony Joe White. People used to boil and eat the young leaves, but I’ve never had the courage to do so myself. Cool song and cool piece of history though. The berries used to be used to make ink, also.
Thanks for the help, this appears to be Pokeweed. My grandparents and I are relieved to know that it isn’t invasive or exceedingly dangerous to be around.
If you swing a machete through a lot of them very quickly it sounds like cartoon chaos.
You’re welcome.