Flora of the Hawaiian Islands
Dicotyledon Literature for Phytolacca sandwicensis
Wagner et al., 1990, 1999.
   Phytolaccaceae -- The Pokeweed Family Bibliography
      Phytolacca sandwicensis

Common name(s): pokeberry, pokeweed, popolo, popolo ku mai
General Information
DistributionHawaiian Islands.In the Hawaiian Islands, endemic to Kaua`i, O`ahu, Moloka`i, Maui, Hawai`i.
















Click here for detailed USGS map by Jonathan Price
HabitatOpen areas or streambeds in mesic to wet forests
Elevation120-1980 m
Habit
Perennial herbs 8-40 dm tall, sometimes somewhat woody toward base; stems usually somewhat sprawling, angular, often puberulent, especially on angles.
Leaves
Leaves elliptic-ovate, elliptic, or oblong-elliptic, 8-22 cm long, (1.5-)4-9.5 cm wide, glabrous or puberulent, especially along veins of lower surface, margins entire, sometimes undulate, apex acuminate or acute, base broadly cuneate to cuneate, petioles 0.8-4.5 cm long.
Flowers
Flowers in racemes usually 8-22 cm long, usually moderately to densely puberulent, peduncles 2-4 cm long, pedicels 3-5 mm long, bract ca. 2-2.5 mm long, bracteoles ca. 1-1.5 mm long; sepals 5, rose, pink, or occasionally white, sometimes somewhat unequal, oblong, ca. 3-4 mm long; stamens 7-9, in a single whorl; ovary 5-7(8) carpellate, the carpels connate throughout.
Fruit
Berries dark purple, longitudinally 5-7(8)-ribbed, ca. 4-6 mm in diameter.
Seeds
Seeds black, subreniform, somewhat wrinkled, ca. 3 mm long.
Contributor
Nancy Khan