Inkweed - introduced (*Phytolacca octandra)

Family: Phytolaccaceae.

Native of Tropical America.

Occurrence: In Central Victoria most records have been on granite e.g. Mt Alexander where it is an environmental weed.

Identification:

• it is a shrub to several metres high
• the small white (or greenish white) flowers are densely clustered along the stalk
• the stems are reddish
• the green fruit turn black, with a reddish juice.

The fruit are poisonous. Inkweed is a troublesome weed in northern coastal N.S.W.

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