Information about poison ivy, oak, sumac and the skin rashes they cause
The question is: which of these three leaves IS poison ivy?
They are totally different colors, sizes, shapes, and textures.
Not a hard one, of course: they are all three poison ivy, just at different growth stages.
Here is yet another example of the difference between 5-leaved Virginia creeper and 3-leaved poison ivy.
I keep posting versions of this for two reasons:
1. Virginia creeper is still among the most common plants to be confused with poison ivy
Word filtered down to us that Jason Isbell has a line in a song on his newest album, Reunions, that mentions poison ivy and oak.
Naturally, being total poison ivy and poison oak nerds, we wanted to hear it.
The songs is Dreamsicle, and the verse includes:
It never fails to amaze me how different poison ivy can look from one plant to another, one place to another.
Here is another great example of the relelenless climbing ability that poison can muster.
This is a location in the Philadelphia area, just this last few weeks in late April.
Here is the story in the victim's own words:
We know that poison ivy has many different looks: shiny, not shiny, notched, not notched.
But this photo, sent in from a fellow in Texas, made me look not twice, but about 5 times.
This is particularly clear example of the hairy climbing vine that poison ivy often becomes.
The reddish hairs show nicely against the dark bark. And you can see both thick vine and thinner vines, plus one hanging off the right side that has no hairs at all.
We see people going for walks outdoors during this COVID-19 pandemic and we know people are also worried about poison ivy, of if in California, poison oak.
So we have made up three free downloads:
• A poison ivy fact fact sheet
• A poison oak fact sheet
All of the nasty face rashes from poison ivy come from people touching their face after getting the plant oil on their hands. Rarely does anyone touch poison ivy directly with their face.
So poison ivy reminds us that we can bring invisible bad stuff from hands to face.
[email protected] • © Jonathan Sachs Graphics
Facebook • Subscribe • 781-272-1989
