# Is That Vine Poison Ivy......Or Not?



## quads (Sep 9, 2009)

I have a lot of poison ivy.  Fortunately I'm not allergic to it.  Maybe all those times fishing for trout barefoot when I was a kid helped desensitize me to it?  It grows pretty big, reaching a foot tall, but I have never seen it climb anything, trees or otherwise.  It sticks to the ground, at least every plant I have ever seen does, but it's vine-like root system travels a long way just under the leaf litter.  It gets clumps of tiny blossoms in the Spring, and white pea-sized berries in the Fall.  Also in the Fall, the leaves turn red and/or yellow.

Poison Ivy likes shade, growing all around under the trees, but I've never seen it climb:






Flowers in the Spring:





Berries in the Fall.  The red leaf on the right side of the photo is poison ivy, the other leaves are not:





One vine that does climb trees is wild grapes:





I hate grapevines.  They are such a tangled mess and sometimes make for dangerous wood cutting.  They get big enough that I am able to cut a few pieces of firewood out of them, but not big enough to split them:





Another vine that climbs trees is this thing.  It's leaves turn bright red in the Fall.  I don't remember what it's called, but it's not poison ivy:





And then there's this thing that climbs trees.  I don't know what it is, but it's not poison ivy either:


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## KP Matt (Sep 10, 2009)

Virginia creeper is the 2nd last one... don't know about the last one.


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## NHFarmer (Sep 10, 2009)

Sure looks like poison ivy to me. Around here it climbs trees all the time


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## rdust (Sep 10, 2009)

KP Matt said:
			
		

> Virginia creeper is the 2nd last one...



x2, Last picture looks like it could be what we call bitter sweet around here. 

I have a *beautiful* poison ivy specimen on a pine in my front yard.  I'll try to remember to take a picture of it when I wander out there to move my tree stand.


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## quads (Sep 10, 2009)

Virginia Creeper and Bittersweet!  Yes, those names sound familiar.  Thanks!


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## Pagey (Sep 10, 2009)

This is a poison ivy vine climbing an approximately 50' white oak right behind our house.  If I could have, I would have gotten a ruler in the image for scale.  The vine(s) are about 6 or 7" across in these pics.


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## Skier76 (Sep 10, 2009)

I'm really allergic to that stuff. As a kid, I had to go on steriods a few times because I got it on my face and the doc was worried about it getting in my eyes. 

I'll probably break out in a rash from viewing this post.  :lol:


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## quads (Sep 10, 2009)

Pagey said:
			
		

> This is a poison ivy vine climbing an approximately 50' white oak right behind our house.  If I could have, I would have gotten a ruler in the image for scale.  The vine(s) are about 6 or 7" across in these pics.


That's very interesting.  The poison Ivy we have here never climbs.  The edges of the leaves in your photo look a little jagged.  Are the leaves on your Poison Ivy jagged?  Ours has smooth edges.


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## Pagey (Sep 10, 2009)

quads said:
			
		

> Pagey said:
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Typically one side is smooth and one side has one or two "jags".  Usually the left side of the leaf is the jagged one that forms usually one, but sometimes two, little points and the right side is smooth to the tip.

Edit: a lot looks like the pic in this link http://www.ppws.vt.edu/scott/weed_id/poisonivy8-11b.jpg


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## quads (Sep 10, 2009)

It seems like Poison Ivy is kind of a tricky plant.  (Leaves of three, let it be!)  According to my Audubon Society Field Guide:


> The plant is extremely variable in form, occurring as a ground cover along roadsides, en erect shrub (especially in sandy coastal areas), or a large vine on trees.


I have seen the ground cover form of it, mostly farther north in Wisconsin, but have never seen it climbing until Pagey's picture!  Thanks.

Here it grows as an erect shrub.  The "especially in sandy coastal areas" explains why.  The Central Sands of Wisconsin is just that, an ancient sandy lake bed.


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## Shipper50 (Sep 10, 2009)

I had trees up in Northern Indiana before I moved and they had poison ivy vines that would be 20 feet up a tree. I made the mistake one time in dead of winter of pulling a PI vine down and it touched my bare wrist, had to doctor it for weeks to get rid of it.

Old saying was, leaves 3 let it be.........

Shipper


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## Flatbedford (Sep 10, 2009)

http://www.poison-ivy.org/
It climbs trees here in NY.


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## quads (Sep 10, 2009)

The more I look at Pagey's pictures, the more it gives me the creeps, and I'm not even allergic to it.  Let's say one of you people that are allergic to it had to cut up a tree like that with a big hairy poison ivy vine all over it, what would you do?  Suppose it fell in a storm onto the roof of your house or across your driveway and you had no choice but to cut it up.  How would you go about it?

Even though I'm not bothered by it, I think I would at least wear gloves, and probably a face shield.  When you cut into that big ugly-looking vine with the saw, it's sap or juice or whatever must fly everywhere.  I'm just glad it doesn't climb trees here; the grapevines are bad enough.


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## Pagey (Sep 10, 2009)

quads said:
			
		

> The more I look at Pagey's pictures, the more it gives me the creeps, and I'm not even allergic to it.  Let's say one of you people that are allergic to it had to cut up a tree like that with a big hairy poison ivy vine all over it, what would you do?  Suppose it fell in a storm onto the roof of your house or across your driveway and you had no choice but to cut it up.  How would you go about it?
> 
> Even though I'm not bothered by it, I think I would at least wear gloves, and probably a face shield.  When you cut into that big ugly-looking vine with the saw, it's sap or juice or whatever must fly everywhere.  I'm just glad it doesn't climb trees here; the grapevines are bad enough.



I've got another oak at the opposite end of the yard with an equal or larger size vine running up it.  We took down a standing dead white oak last year in October just before we build the wood shed.  It had a much smaller vine running up it as well.  We just wore gloves and long sleeves.  As soon as we bucked up the rounds and removed the vines, we washed the clothing and took a shower.  I've read that you have anywhere from 1 to 3 hours to remove the oil from your skin to avoid breaking out due to allergic reaction.  I do not wish to test the upper limits on this theory, however.  

I'll try to post up a pic of the leaves and the other vine tonight.  It is scary looking stuff!  hh:


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## vandedav (Sep 10, 2009)

i worked at a summer camp in southern indiana for many years.  we had both the ground covering poison ivy as well as the vines.  many approaching the size of the one that Pagey showed.  i was always told that the poison ivy vines that climb the trees spread a type of seed that produces the ground covering veriety.  not sure how true that is, but it came from a pretty reliable source (the site manager of the facility who graduated with a forestry degree).  anyways, whenever we came across a vine like that in the woods we would take some loppers and cut a 6" section out of the vine about a foot above ground level.  we would then pour some round up onto the resulting stump to kill the roots, and the section out of the vine would take care of everything above it.

just some thoughts.  i hate the stuff, so anytime that i have a chance to get rid of it i will.


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## Skier76 (Sep 10, 2009)

quads said:
			
		

> Let's say one of you people that are allergic to it had to cut up a tree like that with a big hairy poison ivy vine all over it, what would you do?  Suppose it fell in a storm onto the roof of your house or across your driveway and you had no choice but to cut it up.  How would you go about it?



Probably file a claim with the ins co and get a tree service out ASAP. I'd make sure they took the wood too. That stuff is nasty and burning it is not a good idea. You wouldn't want a face full of smoke from chunk of wood that had that stuff growing on it. Yes, I'm sure it would "burn off" after awhile, but I wouldn't even take the chance.


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## stoveguy2esw (Sep 10, 2009)

burning it is not a goood idea, we did in the past once and my mom broke out and she never handled it.i assume from that its possible to be affected by it just from the smoke, so burning it could put family or neighbors at risk


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## quads (Sep 10, 2009)

I wouldn't think Poison Ivy would give off much heat or hold coals very long anyway.  ;-)

Seriously though, I had an uncle that was a retired forest fire fighter from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and sometimes the guys would have problems with the smoke from poison ivy when fighting fire.


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## wendell (Sep 11, 2009)

Quads, do you have a picture of how the vine attaches to the tree in your last 2 pictures?


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## quads (Sep 11, 2009)

wendell said:
			
		

> Quads, do you have a picture of how the vine attaches to the tree in your last 2 pictures?


Yes, actually I do!  It's my love of taking pictures, I usually take several of each subject from different angles etc. and then choose the one I like best later at the computer, blah blah blah....

Anyway, here you go.
Second to last one hangs onto the tree with squiggly little root-like things:





Last one just winds itself all around and up it goes:


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## wendell (Sep 11, 2009)

Thanks! Does anyone else have a close up of a PI vine attached to a tree?


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