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Entry Date
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Nick Name
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Location
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Thursday, July 10, 2014
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Matt D.
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Connecticut
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Entry 156 of 189 |
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Pokeweed (Phytolacca americana)
While we all dislike weeds because they get in the way of our plants in actuality they are just nuisance plants. In this case Poke Weed is a minimum nuisance plant since there are not many of them, but the real problem is that it can act as a reservoir for certain plant virus and be non-symptomatic. This simply means the plant can be infected with a virus but not show any indication that it is infected. An aphid can come to a Pokeweed plant pick-up the virus and then spread it to the pumpkin plants and it would seem as if the virus came out of nowhere, when it could be potentially sitting just a few feet away from the patch “hiding” in the Pokeweed plant.
There are other plants also that can act as reservoir hosts but this is a very common weed that I have seen around other peoples growing areas. Regardless of the host what is very interesting (at least to me) is that the virus has specific proteins that allow it to easily bind to the stylet (mouth part) of an aphid. This helps make the spread easier for the virus and it also self selects the proper host to be an efficient vector.
My neighbors have been happy as I have been controlling this weed in all of their properties in hopes of reducing the potential hosts for the virus. There are other plants that can carry viruses but this is an obvious one that can be common, so I want to warn others of the potential evil that can be residing in one of these plants.
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