Poisonous plant identification

[jwasted]

good post thanks for showing !

 

[arachnocat]

Thanks for the post! It's definitely good to know what those plants look like when you go bug hunting. When I was little I went camping and the people in the next campground were burning poision oak. The smoke got on me and I had poision oak rash all over my body and in my lungs. It was awful. All I could do was put calamine lotion all over. They have all kinds of remedies now that neutralize the poison including a shot you can get. I wish they had that when I was little! :-(

 

[the_frog_kid]

hahaha i feel bad for you
i have a natural immunity to poison ivy




thanx froggy

 

[DE3]

i have a natural immunity to poison ivy

Do you mind if I ask how is it you know you're immune to poison ivy?

 

[Mr_Baker4420]

i don't have allergic reactions to poison ivy. i come in contact with it all the time on our property and our hunting lease. is it that unbelievable that the guy isn't affected by the stuff. as for the surely impending rebuttals i may receive from some naysayers, YES i do know what poison ivy, poison oak, and poison sumac are and what they look like.

 

[Taceas]

Having been out in the woods most of my life, learning to ID the "leaves of three" while mushroom hunting is necessity in most cases.

I don't get Poison Ivy rashes either, neither does my dad. My mom however, someone could be burning it 5 miles away and she'd get a rash.

A picture of Poison Ivy in the "hairy rope" form after many years growing on a cherry tree in my backyard, along with a couple of smaller, younger runners (far right with a few leaves still attached)..

I think the best way to tell between Poison Ivy and Poison Oak, despite the fact they both have 3 leaves is that the leaf edges on PI are smooth, whereas the leaf edges on PO are toothed/lobed. From my experience, PI climbs more than PO, which tends to form knee-high stalks.

I don't get Poison Oak from mild contact with the leaves, have to actually get the sap on me, which I typically come in contact with when clearing brush with a weed-eater.

We have Sumac around here, it turns a beautiful rainbow of colors in the late summer and autumn, but I'm not sure which is the poison and which is the harmless one. If they're all one and the same, I've gotten the sap on me many times and never had a problem. I used to play with the plant as a child because the milky sap made a nice homemade glue.

Some people are allergic to Virginia Creeper as well, my mother is one of those poor souls. They come in many different sizes, and seem to be spread by bird droppings. I tend to have a lot of them sprout in my yard or nearby flowerbeds that are adjacent to where my bird feeders are all year. They do put out a cluster of grape-like berries that I'm guessing birds dine on during the winter.

Picture of a large beautiful Virginia Creeper leaf from this autumn, it grows up a tree by our driveway along with the Trumpet Vine/Devil's Shoestring.

The best remedies for the rashes in my experience have been:

- Tincture of witch hazel, it reduces inflammation and makes the skin feel refreshed
- Extra Strength Benedryl Cream - has medications to dry out the ooze and stop the itch
- I have never had any luck with calamine lotion, I think its just chalk water. If zinc is that important of an active ingredient, you might as well use diaper rash cream. Which I haven't tried for rashes thus far.

Really informative site I found: http://poisonivy.aesir.com/view/welcome.html

 

[DE3]

i don't have allergic reactions to poison ivy. i come in contact with it all the time on our property and our hunting lease. is it that unbelievable that the guy isn't affected by the stuff. as for the surely impending rebuttals i may receive from some naysayers, YES i do know what poison ivy, poison oak, and poison sumac are and what they look like.

I come in contact with it on a frequent basis myself. I wear long pants and avoid the fresh sap. I havent had a reaction in ~25 years.
Would I grap a handful and use as TP? --Not a chance.
You're immune until..you're not immune.
Just my 2 bits, Mr.

 

[Tim Benzedrine]

Actually, virginia creeper contains chemicals that a select few percentages of the population may be allergic to.

Huh. I guess you learn something every day. I probably owe mom an apology, I was pretty patronizing about it..... Nah, I'll just conveniently forget what I learned.

But when I think about it, couldn't [/i]every[/i] plant technically contain chemicals that a select few percentages of the population is allergic to?

 

[Thoth]

Huh. I guess you learn something every day. I probably owe mom an apology, I was pretty patronizing about it..... Nah, I'll just conveniently forget what I learned.

But when I think about it, couldn't [/i]every[/i] plant technically contain chemicals that a select few percentages of the population is allergic to?

Simply put, yes.

 

[krtrman]

from what i understand from my severe reactions with poison ivy and the research that i have done on the oil (Urushiol), urushiol is harmless to us. however when it binds with our skin it creates an immune system response. our skin thinks that it is a foreign body and tries to attack it. thus the rash. some of us produce too much t-cell activity when we come in contact and thus we have a more severe reaction. others have no reaction. sometimes native background has a lot to do with poison ivy immunity. (native americans have a high tolerance. whereas european backgrounds have little or no tolerance.) scratching the rash does not spread the oil. urushiol is soluble in alcohol but not in water. so if you do come in contact wash the area with alcohol first and then bathe. laundry detergent on the clothes is effective by itself. if you swab with alcohol within the first 15 mins, you may avoid the reaction.

 

[Stylopidae]

scratching the rash does not spread the oil.

From personal experience, I can tell you that that's false. Since the active ingredient in PI, PO and PS (Ivy, Oak, Sumac) is an oil, all that's needed to neutralize it is a bar of soap. When I go out into the woods, I always carry a hotel bar of soap and a gallon of water with me.

 

[krtrman]

if you scratch the rash within 15 minutes yes you can spread it. once the rash appears the oil is all soaked in and cannot spread. other areas that appear affected after 24 hours are secondary contact points. urushiol is not soluble in water. you may be able to flush a lot of it off your skin with soap and water but rubbing alcohol is really only one of a few things that can eliminate the oil.

and the weeping that appears when one scratches the rash is just the body's way of flushing out the foreign invader.

urushiol is the main oil ingredient used in japan as a lacquer for wooden products. they use the oil because of its water resistant properties.

 

[Stylopidae]

Thought I'd bump this for all the new prospective buggers here