Information about poison ivy, oak, sumac and the skin rashes they cause
It has been an absolute rule: "Leaves of three, let them be." If a plant has more than three leaves (or leaflets) in a group, then it simply can not be poison ivy.
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.
In spite of its generally tough-guy attitude, poison ivy is one of the first plants to give up and turn colors in the fall. Which makes early fall a great time to look for it. Often you can find trees, walls, or the ground itself covered with bright red, orange and yellow leaves.
Virginia creeper is supposed to have 5 leaflets in a group. Normally it does, but occasionally it gets "lazy" and only give out 3. Which is a problem for people trying to distinguish it from poison ivy, which always has the the leaflets.
We have been wondering for years, and still wonder: with so much terrrible poison oak throughout California, why are there no poison oak plant control services?
Those wacky guys at Umar Mycka's The Poison Ivy Horticulturist sent us a real nightmare image of poison ivy taking over the side of a house and reaching for the doorknob!
Here is an example of many California fire fighters running afoul of poison oak while fighting brush fires. You can watch the video, though you will need to work your way through layers of pop-up windows and a long sponsor video before the "real" video.
One reason there isn't more research on poison ivy's effect on people is that you basically have to GIVE people the rash to see what happens with different remedies. And nobody much is going to sign up for that.
Here is a nifty poison ivy graphic from the folks at GreenPal. It is a VERY tall graphic that you can print out and stick on the wall. It is full of good info about all phases of the poison ivy, oak, sumac world.
This is an odd story for sure.
We approve strongly of using goats to control poison ivy since it doesn't hurt the goats a bit, is safer than herbicides, and safer than having people tear it out.
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