(click photo to see it larger)

Ground Vine AND Climbing Vine

This is a useful photo because it shows how poison ivy, as a ground vine, becomes a climbing vine as soon as it finds anything to climb.

You can even see how the roots of the ground vine actually change into root-hairs to grab the tree or wall or stone that it wants to climb.

This is just one more way in which poison ivy is such a variable plant in terms of how it looks and where it grows.