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Bloody Cranesbill (Geranium) - Funny thing about them is that they don't look bloody until autumn, and it's the leaves, not the flowers.

Pokeberries - (From Wikipedia)
Phytolacca americana (American pokeweed, pokeweed, poke) is used as a folk medicine and as food. For many decades, poke salad ('poke salat') has been a staple of southern U.S. cuisine, where it is cooked and rinsed at least twice to remove the harmful component.[13] All parts of it are toxic unless properly prepared.[14] Toxic constituents which have been identified include the alkaloids phytolaccine and phytolaccotoxin, as well as a glycoprotein.[15] Pokeweed berries yield a red ink or dye, which was once used by aboriginal Americans to decorate their horses.[citation needed] The Constitution of the United States was written using in ink made from pokeberries. Many letters written home during the American Civil War were also written in pokeberry ink; the writing in these surviving letters appears brown.[citation needed] The red juice has also been used to symbolize blood, as in the anti-slavery protest of Benjamin Lay.[citation needed] A rich brown dye can be made by soaking fabrics in fermenting berries in a hollowed-out pumpkin.[citation needed]Some pokeweeds are also grown as ornamental plants, mainly for their attractive berries; a number of cultivars have been selected for larger fruit panicles.[citation needed]Pokeweeds are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including Giant Leopard Moth.[citation needed]

I'm not shy about

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Published on July 09, 2012 07:09
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