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Okay, I am highly sensitive to poison ivy and know what to look for. Today, as many other days, I have run into the 5 leaved plant that grows in the same conditions as poison ivy. I was always told this was “5 leaf” poison ivy. Well, I ended up accidentally putting my face right in a patch today and I am not sure what it is. I try to step over it most of the time, but it is pretty much everywhere. Does anybody know what plant I am talking about and what it is? No signs of a rash yet, knock on wood, but I sure would like to know what this plant is. If someone tells me how to post a picture here, I can post one of it.[/img]
I can’t help you with the plant, but if you have a picture uploaded to a site on the internet, follow this:
-katy-
Did it look like this:
According to the great Poison Ivy Information Center website, this is probably Virginia Creeper. Some of the short/new stems start out with 3 leaves, then get 5 when they mature… so you can see plants that have a mix of 3 and 5 leaves. I see these 5 leaved plants quite frequently, as well as some other kind of vine with leaves that look even more like poison ivy (sometimes even purple/red) but they have 3 to 7 leaves per stem.
In addition to having the two extra leaves, the leaves on the Virginia Creeper are oval instead of heart shaped, and lack the longer stem on the middle leaf that poison ivy has.
Bottom line… I think your face will be OK! 🙂
YA HOO! That is it! I just got back from the store and bought some kind of face scrub and now I look like this 😳 but at least I don’t have a rash. So you are saying that the V-creeper does not have any allergic oils and is okay? I see tons of it and am always trying to step over it, etc… if it is not a toxic plant I am sure going to be happy and have more fun caching! Thanks so much for the info.
Color me impressed.
25 minutes from request to response with a positive ID.
Uh, Jeremy, I have a this rash. Would you happen to … ?
Good to know what that plant is now, too. I’ve been seeing more of it around this year, including in my yard. It seems harmless enough to us, but it’s rather invasive.
Like Jeff, I’m sooooo impressed with the responses. From question to response, what a helpful bunch. I’ve seen this quick response happen quite a bit on these forums and it always makes me smile. 😛
As we have said from the very beginning, geocachers are some of the nicest, friendliest people we have every met.
😀 I absolutely agree with you! Geocachers are great folks. I was really worried today that my face was going to be a disaster! I felt so much better when I got that quick reply and I am glad to see the question/information helped out other cachers as well!
@jthorson wrote:
Color me impressed.
25 minutes from request to response with a positive ID.
Jeff, this is really just a result of not having enough stuff to keep me occupied at work. 🙂
Speaking of not having enough stuff to keep me busy, I also put together a little flowchart to help people identify poison ivy. Basically it outlines what I look for when I try to positively identify a plant as poison ivy (you can tell I like to think logically :)).
I could find nothing like this on the internet or elsewhere… most sites, posters, identification cards, etc. just have pictures of poison ivy. It is kind of a pain to compare a plant in the field to these pictures. Plus poison ivy leaves can vary from plant to plant and it can grow in a number of configurations, so the pictures given in a guidebook may not exactly match real poison ivy. But if you kind of sort of know what poison ivy looks like, you can simply look for a couple key characteristics on a suspect plant (shown on the flowchart) to either rule it out as poison ivy or positively identify it as poison ivy.
Poison Ivy Identification Flowchart 1.0 (PDF)
Poison Ivy Identification Flowchart 1.0 (JPG)At some point, I plan to add some small, hand drawn pictures to help people with the flow chart decision points. Also, I am not a botanist or anything, so if people have suggestions on decision points to be added or ways to clarify the terminology being used, let me know.
😯 Ok, that is just amazing. A laminated copy is going in my geobag TODAY! THank you so much for doing that. We should pass these out at the next GEO function for everyone!
@lonesumdove wrote:
So you are saying that the V-creeper does not have any allergic oils and is okay? I see tons of it and am always trying to step over it, etc… if it is not a toxic plant I am sure going to be happy and have more fun caching!
According to this source, Virginia Creeper (aka woodbine) is poisonous/toxic. The berries and stems contain oxalic acid.
But it does NOT have the urushiol oil that causes the rash with poison ivy, oak, and sumac… so as long as you don’t eat it (keep your mouth closed when you dive face first into it ;)), you should be OK!
😆
@jeremy wrote:
Poison Ivy Identification Flowchart 1.0 (PDF)
Poison Ivy Identification Flowchart 1.0 (JPG)Jeremy, do you mind if I share this with the people in the Michigan Geocaching Organization Forums? There has been a lot of talk about pi over there recently. It is very nicely done!
@Team B Squared wrote:
Jeremy, do you mind if I share this with the people in the Michigan Geocaching Organization Forums?
Nope, share away. Hopefully no one gets PI after using the logic though, since it has my name and email address on it (I can imagine some nasty emails if someone does get a rash). 🙂
@jeremy wrote:
@Team B Squared wrote:
Jeremy, do you mind if I share this with the people in the Michigan Geocaching Organization Forums?
Nope, share away. Hopefully no one gets PI after using the logic though, since it has my name and email address on it (I can imagine some nasty emails if someone does get a rash). 🙂
I wouldn’t worry too much about nasty emails from that group, I have found them to be an exceedingly friendly group, just like most here! I think they will appreciate the info, as there has been a lot of pi talk in the forums over there recently.
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