plant identification, help please

[Jack Dahlgren]

Further identifiers of Poison Ivy are hairy vines with rootlets all along the vine; and glossy red leaflets in early Spring which turn matte-green as they mature — all of which are shown in those pictures.

"Leaves of three: let it be"!!

On the West Coast of the US we don’t have poison ivy, but we do have poison oak and the same saying “leaves of three, let it be”. However, there are some other plants with three leaves. So, because poison oak leaves are smooth and shiny, the second part of the saying is “if it’s hairy, it’s a berry”.

[basker]

...Poison Ivy has groups of three separate leaflets (each with their own petioles) but your plant has tri-lobed compound leaves born on a single leaf stalk..

Ann,
That is exactly where I went wrong. I fixated on what appeared to be 3 leaves without seeing the single stalk to the vine. Nice catch, and thank you for it. It reminds me of some advice I have been neglecting, "Don't stop looking too soon. Don't stop thinking too soon."

BTW I have enjoyed you CR series, and the recently added owls are delightful.
Sam

[basker]

https://garden.org/plants/view/81063/Sorrelvine-Cissus-trifoliata/
It's a kind of Grape Ivy, Cissus trifoliata.

Andrea,
Thank you for the advice and the excellent link. I expect to be using the garden.org site again. And BTW, I remember your backlit azalea series because it is unforgettably lovely.
Sam

[Frank Fremerey]

ivy, but not poison? We have several kinds of ivy in our small garden, more of a shared space to park bicycles. Some leaves look almost like maple, others next to be cut in three parts. All have the creeping form of stems and the bright green veins or ateries on a dark green backdrop. I no no think abaut bio logie. but. I learn that two day they use genetics not phenomenology to identify and categorize plants....

[Bjørn Rørslett]

Taxonomy uses inter alia genetic markers to establish or clarify relationships in the natural world. However, for identification we mainly rely on how a species appear, not its genetic markup.

As most species of Cissus are semi-tropical, you likely have Parthenocissus also known as Virginia Creeper. These are widely cultivated as ornamentals in Europe.

[Ann]

As far as I know, Poison Ivy is not found in the UK and probably not in western Europe either?

It was one of the first plants that I learned to identify when we moved to the USA because it is abundant here and contact with it causes a severe reaction and oozing skin lesions for most people.

I was told that I shouldn't burn it if I pull it up while weeding the garden (wearing gloves and long sleeves!), because the smoke is toxic! (We have never used weed-killers here because we are on a well.)
.......

Sam:
I am so pleased that you have been enjoying my CR pictures: being in that beautiful country and having the chance to experience the incredible diversity and beauty of its wildlife was a wonderful experience.

[Frank Fremerey]

Thank you Bjørn and Ann. Very interesting.

[Andrea B.]

It was one of the first plants that I learned to identify when we moved to the USA because it is abundant here and contact with it causes a severe reaction and oozing skin lesions for most people.

Ann, indeed, the upper east coast of the US seems to be absolutely rampant with the stuff. Well, at least down here in New Jersey. And from what I've seen also up there in New York. And lucky us, we have three types of Toxicodendron - Poison Ivy, Poison Oak and Poison Sumac. So there are plant, vine and small tree forms. I stay away from all Sumac looking plants just to be on the safe side. The plant and vine types have those shiny Leaves of Three, so one does learn to recognize it readily after seeing a few examples.

As a devoted botanical photographer, I encounter Poison Ivy literally everywhere I go to shoot the little wild fleurs here. We try now to always wear long pants tucked into socks and long sleeves if we are going to ramble along any pretty little trails with Poison Ivy amply bordering the path. The minute I arrive home, I stop by the washing machine and drop in the shirt/pants/socks AND shoes. The Poison Ivy oil - urushiol - can linger for days (months?) on exposed clothing so it must be washed immediately.

I'm always accidently triggering an outbreak of the Poison Ivy rash by finding some unusual flower which I simply must shoot. A rare white Sanguinaria flower on a small hillside of a local park in spring before all the PI leaves had unfurled occasioned one rash. Photographing the intriguing internal structure of the Skunk Cabbage growing in some minor wetlands brought on another. I'm much more careful these days......

Except for when I'm not......Last year somewhere in my own yard I brushed against a PI leaf and got a terrible outbreak on the back of my leg around the knee area. The irritation from that triggered an apparent auto-immune rebellion system-wide after which I then enjoyed some lovely "hives" on back, stomach, scalp, and arms. It took two courses of cortisone injections and pills and six full months to finally squelch the PI irritation and hives. The PI rash went away fairly quickly, but the unusual secondary reaction was harder to quell. So that's the worst case of it I've ever had. One for the record books methinks. I had to wrap the knee to catch the weeping ooze. Disgusting, it was for sure! (BTW, the rash is not contagious nor does it spread if you scratch at it. Just so you know.)

I don long rubber chemical gloves and wrap my arms in newspapers held with rubber bands when I have to dig Poison Ivy out of the herb garden or the ground cover under the big pine tree. It's quite a sight.

For the record, that stinging nettle plant shown in Sam's Bad Plant photos really does provide quite a sharp lingering sting. I learned about that plant the hard way by yanking one out of a planter full of violas. Got a couple of stings which lasted about an hour or so. 

Sam, thank you for remembering the back lit azalea! That was quite some time ago. 

When Bjørn Birna came to the US for the Desert Wildflower Safari in 2012 one of the first things I did was to teach him about tarantulas, rattlesnakes and, of course, Poison Ivy. [The "rule" being that you do not put your foot or your hand anywhere in the desert that you cannot see what is there. And don't look under rocks. <laughing>] In the actual desert of course we did NOT see any PI, but you can't be too careful!! Let's just say that Bjørn was not particularly surprised when I showed up in Norway one time with some healing Poison Ivy trails still obvious along one leg and my first question was Do you have Poison Ivy in Norway?

[Ann]

An attack by Poison Ivy really is very nasty and my impression is that one reacts more violently to each succeeding contact with it.

There is another plant, Impatiens capensis (popularly known as Jewel Weed), which often grows in the same area as Poison Ivy.
Rubbing the sap of Jewel Weed immediately onto any skin which has come in contact with Poison Ivy does seem to help.

[Matthew Currie]

While we're on the subject of toxic plants, visitors to New England these days should also beware of wild parsnip.  A relative of many other plants including wild carrots, Queen Anne's lace and others, the wild parsnip has become quite rampant in recent years along roadsides and the like.  Not quite as large as the giant hogweed, a really terrible member of the family that is fortunately not so common, parsnip plants grow quite tall, with a yellow flowering top.  All these plants, but the parsnip more than some, exude a "photo-phyto-toxin" in their sap, which, rather than causing an allergic reaction like poison ivy, reacts to sunlight and burns the skin.   It's become a true plague here in Vermont over the last couple of decades.