BEST LINE OF DEFENSE Everything you need to know about defending yourself against poison ivy, p. oak, p.sumac (and bonus tips) The culprit is the plant’s clear odorless resin—urushiol—it is found to exist throughout the plant entirely. Poison ivy always makes its appearance known either as a bushy shrub, vine, or ground cover. Its presence is most everywhere. It can be found living in woods, climbing a tree, tall fields of grass, in areas of thick underbrush, mountain crevices, beneath
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VEGETATION CONTROL
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he incessant itching. The redness and rash. Those oozing blisters. Sound familiar? If you answered yes to any or all, chances are you have met with either poison ivy, poison oak, or poison sumac. Come into contact with any one of these poisonous-to-the- touch plants and they immediately can rein down their wrath of painful symptoms in as little as 20 minutes and last up to several days. As this saying goes, “Where the devil spits, poison ivy grows, Beware!” rocks, beneath fallen leaves on the forest floor, in mulched garden beds, public gardens, used car lots, golf courses, sidewalk cracks, beneath boardwalks, or sandy coastal dunes. It exhibits three green leaflets shared by one common stem that forms the leaf entire. During spring, the leaves first emerge as tiny bright red—turning to shiny bright green
as they mature. Throughout the summer they persist as darker shades of green that provides them with the necessary camouflage to remain and go undetected. In autumn, the leaves turn bright shades of yellow, pink, purple, orange and red always remain toxic to touch. The unfortunate part—and far too many of us have been there—is
Issue 1, 2021
