Information about poison ivy, oak, sumac and the skin rashes they cause
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.
In Japan and China, there is a tree that has a sap containing urushiol, the same oil that causes the skin rash from poison ivy, oak and sumac.
This very mild winter in the northeast will likely result in an early spree of poison ivy sprouting.
Poison ivy tends to be among the early ones to leaf out (and early to give up in fall).
Here we have a 4-inch poison ivy vine that has been sawed through. Note how lots of sap seeps out from the bark layer.
It is the plant sap that contains the urushiol oil that causes all the problems.
I have rarely seen poison ivy climbing a white birch, but as this photo shows it is happy to do so.
But it also does a nice job of revealing itself against the white bark.
Some things to notice:
I recently got an email from a fellow who had cut down a tree and cut it up for firewood. It had been covered in poison ivy vines and he got a terrible case of it. Cutting the vines with a chain saw will unleash and splatter the plant sap all over, which is a way to get a hall of fame rash.
We apologize for even showing you this rash, but this is why this website exists in the first place.
Poison ivy and poison oak and poison sumac can cause an allergic reaction that produces spectacularly awful results. Giant rashes, sometimes with bubbles filled with fluids.
Maybe you know somebody who went through a poison ivy nightmare.
Maybe you know somebody who is scared to death of poison ivy.
These quality educational poison ivy Tshirts make great presents for any past or potential victims of America's most hated weed.
There are two reasons that it is hard to know that THIS IS POISON IVY!
1. This is a not-so-common form of poison ivy: it is growing almost as a shrub, sending vines branches in all directions, looking for either sun or something to climb upon.
Here is a fence around a yard where the poison ivy has gone bonkers and is having an autumn party.
Couple of things to note here:
1. The poiison ivy had been cut back to the level of the hedge during the summer but came roaring back.
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