Re my unknown plant

Is it phytolacca - Poke weed? which is grown for its foliage small white or pink flowers an then black berries which turn red. Not recomended for most garden as it is dangerously poisinous and attractive to children.

Wow, I'd better pull it up before the grandchildren come around, Thank you

Hm, not bad, but not so atttractive all over, is it Roslil - the flower's really nice. But yes, sounds like it needs to go.

I've got this all over the place having carefully collected the berries from a garden last summer (thought it looked attractive.)
Not so sure now! I guess it's going to self seed everywhere, though it should be easy to pull out.
In the southern states of America they boil and eat the young leaves as spinach, which surprises me when the whole plant is poisonous!
It's also known as the 'inkberry' so you could crush the berries and make your own ink.

Actually Bertie, there are many plants that are NOT poisonous when the leaves are young, but become so the older they get.
Most indiginous peoples seem aware, and are skilled at recognition, Casava being a well known example.
What interests me more however, is the world wide ignorance about what foods to eat, how and when.
Sure, governmental agencies will never tell you the truth, because they have political agendas to adhere to, but gardeners . . . . wow, what a wonderful resource. Perhaps we should have a section on this forum for food consumption?
I suspect many grow vegetables, and I also expect most are for eating.
I wonder what uses vegetables and weeds can be put to?
Inkweed sounds like a good starting point to me.

You are right, Burgundy. I read somewhere that in the Middle Ages people regularly ate around a hundred species of plants and herbs. Now we are reduced to a handful, most of them related to one another, like the solanums (potatoes, tomatoes, aubergines, peppers) and brassicas (huge tribe of them).
One of the great pleasures of gardening is rediscovering some of these, like oca (oxalis family), Good King Henry (chenopodium family) etc.

Hi Bertie - nice to find someone who thinks along my lines.
If you don't mind, I would like to add a small addition to your comments:
The Middle Ages is indeed quite modern, in the grand scheme of things, as our ancestors trace their lineages back across millenia, and of course, across Europe into Africa.
Most people today, particularly in Uk, are locked into traditional meals at breakfast, lunch and dinner, yet few realise that these traditions only extend back to WW2.
Additionally, modern diseases have been created by the RAPID transition of diets with the last 10,000 years, as a direct result of domestication by the early hunter gatherers.
Put it this way, mankind evolved over millions of years, yet the human body has had to cope with a rapidly, ever changing diet over just a few thousand.
Fundamentally, we haven't evolved to cope with the diets we are stuffing our bodies with.
Radical, yes, but to end with a shocker, if humanity is going to insist on heating it's food, it will continue to radiate it's organs, with the inevitable resultant effect.
Put it this way, Caucasions eat apples from September through to April at the latest. If you want to eat them at any other time of year, the cyclic digestive system will react negatively.
cheers.

Most plants have a medicinal purpose but we have just lost that knowledge over hundreds of years Yet many chemotherapy drugs for cancer come from plants - vinca is one, yew another and of course digitalis for the heart ginger for emisis (sickness) I could go on for ever.

Yea and Willow for the original aspirin, though we synthesize it now.