Poison Ivy ID and Flowers

If you have ever been unfortunate enough to experience the wrath of poison ivy, I feel your pain. I have gotten the wretched rash from this depraved plant many times in my life. Because of that, I have taken it upon myself to be able to identify poison ivy anytime and anywhere. 

What trips up most people I know is that they don't really know what the heck it looks like. I've been on Boy Scout trips, and these kids think any plant with three leaflets is something to be scared of. Me, I just roll my eyes and point out the actual poison ivy that they're probably stepping on. 

I probably sound like a brat. Sorry, being around some people brings out the worst in me. 

As annoyed as I get sometimes, I always try to ID poison ivy for them so that they may be better equipped in the future to avoid this hellspawn. 

You probably already know about "Leaves of three, leave it be." That's a good rule of thumb if you wanna be super safe. There are other signs however. For example, when it climbs up a tree, it grows a ton of air roots to grab onto the bark. This gives the vine an almost fuzzy look. 

Sometimes the leaves are toothed, sometimes they're smooth. Sometimes the stems are red, sometimes they're not. Honestly it is kind of hard to identify. It really knows how to blend in with other non-irritating plants in the area. 

The photos I have to share with you today consist of a mature Poison Ivy vine growing up a tree. It gives a good look at the leaves, as well as its flowers. 

Flowers?? Yes, flowers. I mean, how else would you expect it to reproduce? True, it is hell-spawn. But that doesn't mean it spawns from nothing like in a video game. Although it sure does seem like it. 

Actually, these flowers, when fertilized, ripen to greenish-whitish berries. I theorize that birds eat the berries. Birds are not affected by capsaicin, the chemical that makes peppers spicy, so I think maybe poison ivy's oils (urushiol) don't affect our avian friends either. Birds' digestive tracts are not acidic like mammals', therefore seeds do not lose their vitality; they don't get digested. They just get pooped out in new location, probably under a tree they can climb up, with a splatter of nice fertilizer to get their growth started. I mean, in regard to evolution, it make sense to me. 

Of course, I may be wrong. It's just my theory. 

Anyway, below here I have another shot of the vine as it climbs up the tree's trunk. You can see how the flowers are in clusters, like how grapes grow. 

Here's a close up of the flowers: 

They're honestly kind of pretty. I mean, they're all green and will curse you for a week if you touch them, but pretty nonetheless. 

Until next time, 

- Jess