Poison Ivy Treatment
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Poison Ivy Plant
Poison ivy is a plant in the family Anacardiaceae. It is well known for its ability to produce urushiol, an organic oil toxin that causes an allergic skin rash on contact, technically known as urushiol-induced contact dermatitis.
Poison Ivy found throughout the United States except Alaska, Hawaii, and parts of the West Coast. It is normally found in wooded areas, especially along edge areas. It also grows in exposed rocky areas and in open fields and disturbed areas. The plant is extremely common in suburban and exurban areas of New England, the Mid-Atlantic, and Southeastern United States. The plants can grow as a shrub, as a groundcover, or as a vine.
The leaves are ternate with three almond-shaped leaflets. The color ranges from light green to dark green, turning orange or red in fall. The leaflets are 1 to 5 in long. Each leaflet has a few or no teeth along its edge, and the leaf surface is smooth. Leaflet clusters are alternate on the vine, and the plant has no thorns. These three characteristics are sufficient to positively identify the plant:
- clusters of three leaflets
- alternate
- lack of thorns.
If it is growing up the trunk of a tree, the presence of copious root-hairs will identify it.