Information about poison ivy, oak, sumac and the skin rashes they cause
A viewer sent in this very good photo of poison ivy seedling. I think it's cute but she doesn't. You can see the baby leaves, the oval-shaped leaves called cotyledons.
The biggest problem in trying identify poison ivy is how VARIABLE the plant can be. I couldn't be sure about this plant.
I was out for a walk one day and ran into a rather educated nature observer. He was able to identify various tree species that I didn't know of. But then he made an interesting statement that struck me as both very lovely and quite untrue.
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.
