Information about poison ivy, oak, sumac and the skin rashes they cause
Here is a rare True Fact: poison ivy NEVER grows along with sweet fern. These two plants just don't get along, and I have no idea what is behind this.
Confession! This website repeats the common phrase, "Leaves of three, let it be." But, technically, the phrase is wrong!
This photo of a monster poison ivy vine was sent in by a viewer. It reminds me of the monster trees that came alive in Harry Potter.
A poison ivy, poison oak detection system created!
We just launched this all-new version of this website at midnight on April 27...
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.
Poison ivy, oak, and sumac tend to generate a lot of folk tales, meaning stuff that isn't necessarily so. Stuff that hasn't been proven, but really SEEMS to be true or that somebody you trust once told you.
In the southeast part of the US, we have both poison ivy and eastern poison oak. But they are pretty hard to tell apart. I was taken to a site in the sandy southern part of New Jersey by a top botanist who grew up there.
