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Roadside Poison Ivy Pillars

This is a very common scene in the eastern half of the United States: roadside trees with poison ivy vines climbing up.

Poison ivy grows as a ground vine which will often start climbing up walls and trees, looking for more light.

Sometimes the poison ivy branches stick out so wide from the tree that people mistake them for tree branches, which leads to big trouble.

Note that these three vines seem to end right about the same height, which might just mean that all three vines are about the same age.

Poison ivy is easy to tear down from a tree; the root hairs that hold it on are not very strong. BUT you have to be careful because tearing down the vine can unleash tons of the urushiol that causes the rash.