Information about poison ivy, oak, sumac and the skin rashes they cause
Poison sumac is a funny topic. Many of the hundreds of thousands of monthly visitors to this site are searching for poison sumac info in Google.
And yet, in 15 years of running this site, I have gotten very few actual photos of poison sumac: it is just not that common.
I have been getting a number of images of a strange looking plant asking if it is poison sumac. And it is a strange one, with big berries that turn purple. But it is NOT poison sumac.
Staghorn sumac is as common as poison ivy; seen along almost all highways in the northeast. In the fall, it comes up with some of the most spectacular fall colors.
For some reason, people seem to get particularly steamed up about poison sumac. Specifically, they yell at me when I say it is fairly rare and only grows in very wet areas.