Poison Ivy in Spring

The right-hand leaf has the pointed shape typical of poison ivy, while the left-hand leaf has a rounded look without points.

This photo, taken in New England on April 20th, shows that the flower buds show up soon after the first leaves.

Another example where leaves on the same plant look different: some are typical and pointed, while others are quite round. (This is all poison ivy, except for a few all-green maple seedling leaves behind the poison ivy.)

Notice: some poison ivy leaves are red, but others are green. Having red leaves is not a rule, even in the spring.

These leaves are so young they don't have any typical leaf shape: I knew what this was because I had been here the previous year when the leaves were full grown.

The green leaves on the left are Virginia creeper; just the red leaf on the right is poison ivy. However, creeper can also be red in the spring. The key is that creeper has 5 leaves in the group.