Phytolacca americana

Flowers of the Himalaya by Pollunin & Stainton p341clearly mentions Phytolacca acinosa Roxb. as an excellent pot herb if leaves are well boiled.. A photograph is also given.The plant was procured from sunday market at Gangtok and much relished by myself and Dr Srvastava,now a Jt Director in BSI.He prepared a paper for Jl Hill Research by Sikkim Society in 1990. As I left Sikkim for CAL I have nt received reprintsts,I talked about less-known edible plants -Madurai Science Congress Botany section unde Prof Purakayastha. .. 

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thank you…
yes all phytolacas have to be bolied atleast in thre…count three…changes of water to render them less toxic and edible… american tribes used to do that and the pioneers who learned from them..
but with advent of farming of other less toxic grrens for spinach, collard greens, kohlrabi greens, broccoli, broccoli rabe etc etc these old greens that are toxic need not be used for food anymore…
Interesting to know the history though…

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I never knew about the toxicity of broccoli…just googled it and found some cases but unfortunately no authentic links. Would you plz suggest some authentic readings to know more about the same? I am interested as broccoli is one of my favorite vegetables!

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Broccoli? Mine too, love it, sauteed with onions and in snowy winter day with garlic…otherwise not… 
I donot think I said anything about toxicity of broccoli…
I said greens such spinach broccoli etc are now available and so people do not have to eat old fashioned greens like phytolaca which are very toxic. But my sentence in that post above may be interpreted to imply that these new veggie greens are toxic to some extent, Thats sort of true…eg too much spinach will be bad for calcium absorption, because of oxalic acid… etc…
I had taken some classes with a lady teacher from UBC (where Tanay is) who used to say every thing under the sun is toxic … you just have to be careful and be wise about how to eat or combine stuff.
BUT since you got me started on this…. Broccoli is a brassica ….
Its a Brassica.. all brassica contain , varying amounts of Glucosinolate compounds, when eaten they block uptake /absorption of Iodine and hence lead to goiters… in people not eating enough iodine in daily diets ( the iodine supplemented salt is a misguided attempt at providing iodine to humans, it must be in an absorbable chelated form so it can go thru the gut epithelial barrier and can be transported , elemental iodine in the table salt may not be so very useful to the thyroid and other enzymes that need it for making/using t3/t4 etc, although some people swear by the iodinated salt… I do not wish to argue with them… they are too emotionally attached to iodinated salt… ) …but i am getting away from broccoli…
Anyway eaten as vegetable once in a while Brassicas are not bad… not to worry… unless you are eating mustard greens, cauliflower, cabbage, broccoli, broccoli rabe, mustard oil etc every day three times a day … which we often do except for the mustard oil… since these vegetables all arrive from the farm in the same season…. and we may be mistakenly thinking that we are rotating the veggies, untill the brain makes a connection that they are all brassicas…. there is a chance for overload of the goiterogens in our system…
Google glucosinolates and if you find interesting papers and you can download or copy them from your library please forward them to me. I’ll greatly appreciate it.. Many years ago I think NY times garden section and may be even the food section had run some news items (its stuck in my brain but cant find the clippinig just now) that broccoli florests have the higher concentration of the glucosinolates….
BUT RITESH… the good nutritional value of these vegetables esp anticancer and immune enhancing values far outweigh the goiterogenic content and fear … and that one can counteract it with iodine supplements… and if you are non-vegetarian with iodine rich sea food , sea fishes such as whale or tuna etc…

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Date: 2 November 2014

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Species list in Flora of China        

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Yes, I was also wondering about the altitude!

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I think matches with images at various threads under Phytolacca Americana

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DV :: 16NOV11 – 0930 :: ¿ Phytolacca ? along roadside, Ooty: … ID please.

Place: Ooty town (~ 7250 ft asl), Tamilnadu
Time: November 16, 2011 at 9.30am
Habit: small erect herb
Habitat: growing along roadside
Plant: standing about a metre high, often found 2 – 3 plants together
Inflorescence: about 9 – 12 cm
Flower: about 3-5 mm across

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To me it looks like some Phytolaccaceae sp.
May be Phytolacca octandra??

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I think P. americana: flowers spaced, stamens 10-12 in number

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