Phytolacca octandra

Rank-smelling, glabrous perennial herb or soft-wooded shrub, to c. 2 m high and wide. Leaves petiolate, elliptic or narrowly ovate, to 25 cm long, 13 cm wide (but usually c. 4–10 cm long, 1–3 cm wide). Inflorescence a dense, spike-like raceme, 3–13 cm long (elongating to c. 20 cm in fruit), axis papillate; bracts oblong, c. 2 mm long; pedicels shorter than to subequal to bracts; perianth segments ovate, c. 3 mm long, whitish, green, tinged red, or wholly reddish-purple; stamens 8–10, shorter than perianth; carpels 7–10, fused; styles linear, c. 0.5 mm long, recurved. Berry depressed-globular, 5–9 mm diam., succulent, dark reddish-purple, constricted between the 8 (or fewer by abortion) shining black lenticular seeds, c. 2 mm diam. Flowers mainly Nov.–May.