News & Notes

Poison ivy berries/seeds

The advantages of poison ivy (no really)

What if I told you poison ivy has its advantages. No, really, it’s true. On many coastal areas, poison ivy serves as a protective barrier, helping to keep out unwanted visitors. Due to the fact that poison ivy can survive living for a long time under the most extreme of environmental conditions, it is beneficial in protecting specific areas, i.e., fragile sand dunes, These plants also favor living at the cusp edge of the forest, help serving to keep intruders at bay.

Poison ivy does not require lots of fresh water or as many nutrients as other plants do in order to survive. While it may pose as a nuisance plant to most humans, it has proven benefits advantageous to stabilizing specific fragile eco-systems. Toxicodendron sp., Poison ivy is an invasive native plant species that exists living nowhere outside of USA. Often problematic once discovered as it causes rashes from hell and the like, it significantly contributes to our food chain in other ways. Did you know that many animals actually feed off of its leaves, flowers and berries/seeds? That’s right, poison ivy plant berries are harmful if eaten by humans, but not for birds, chipmunks and rodents alike, all love eating them. The poison ivy berries serve as the perfect nutritional food source, especially during winter months.

THEY SAID IT...

“The weed has been expanding to new regions in the state and its growth has become more aggressive. [It] can be found growing in fallow areas, fence rows, pastures, roadsides and creek sides.”

— Jeffrey S Graybill, education agronomist at Penn State Extension, on a recently found poisonous weed spreading aggressively across Pennsylvania

Cashews, mangos, pistachios poison ivy, oh my...

Everyone tries to avoid poison ivy, right? But how many try to avoid cashews and mangos? Wait a minute. How are these things related? For starters, they’re all part of the same cashew family. And, all these plants produce urushiol, which causes the itchy burning oozing blistering rash associated with poison ivy.

While it’s unlikely you will experience a reaction to cashews, pistachios or mangoes unless you have a particular food sensitivity, they each contain a lesser concentration of urushiol than does poison ivy, oak, and sumac. But you should know it’s possible. Cashews store urushiol in their outer protective lining surrounds their seed, which makes processing cashews a time consuming difficult process. Did you ever see a cashew nut being sold with its shell on? The shells are toxic and immediately get discarded. Cashews actually are dry roasted before being sold in order to neutralize the urushiol. Never to be eaten raw. Now you know why. Pistachios nuts similarly are in the same plant family as poison ivy. They too contain trace amounts of urushiol. Yet once roasted, their urushiol is neutralized and exists safe for human consumption. As for mangos, they too contain urushiol concentrations located in the outer skin. Farm hands responsible for harvesting mangos often experience frequent bouts of contact dermatitis, all due to frequent handling of this fruit. Those who exist sensitive to urushiol, upon eating the flesh of the mango, often develop irritation what is referred to as ‘mango mouth,” which most similarly resembles poison ivy rash around the outer lip perimeter.

Pistachio Plant

Cashew Plant

Mango Plant

Poison ivy along guardrail.

Don’t tell me, was that poison ivy?

Allergy rash and prevention tips you can count on in the field

It was poison ivy. You checked it once. You checked it twice. But that third time’s a charm. Don’t panic. While you may have come in contact with one of the plants in the poison ivy family – Toxicodendron species, there are preventative measures you can take to ward off complete disaster. Following these guidelines will help keep things in check. Always consult with a doctor if your condition worsens.

You recently touched the plant, now what?

Immediately wash the affected area with plenty of cold running water using strong detergent soap from a hose, stream, lake or any other nearby water source that is within arm’s reach. Using strong detergent soap is your best preventative measure. As the soaps cleansing surfactants serve as the release mechanism to the urushiol (held responsible for causing the rash) bonds that have embedded themselves into your skin. If you don’t have any then use any soap type that exists at your disposal. Thoroughly wash your hands and affected body parts using cold water, never hot water, as hot opens the pores of your skin allowing the plant’s urushiol to most readily sink in and be absorb deeply into your skin outer surface. While washing the contacted areas, make certain to thoroughly wash and rinse away all the soap completely. Repeat this wash rinse cycle three to four times.

Unfortunately, it is not guaranteed this procedure will prevent you from an allergic reaction. It will, however, be most effective when you wash within the first 15 minutes of making contact with any part of these poisonous plants.

You touched poison ivy, oak or sumac, but do you have poisoning?

If you have recently been in contact with any of these poisonous plants and you’re experiencing an allergic reaction, it’s more than likely you are having an adverse reaction to any one of these plant’s urushiol, which is a resin. The itching & redness symptoms typically appear within the first 20 minutes or might take as long as up to 48 hours after you have been exposed. The time interval for this rash to first appear varies widely, from person to person—similarly once the

rash itself is established, can last anywhere from a few days to two weeks or longer.

Typically, the first signs of an allergic reaction is the appearance of redness of the skin accompanied by severe burning and itching. In some cases, your skin may swell up. Once your skin becomes red and itchy, most often next forms large oozing blisters in rows (due to the way the ivy rubbed against your skin).

If the poisoning is severe enough, the blisters will continue to erupt and appear very large, resulting in extreme swelling and discomfort. Additionally, those highly allergic individuals may experience running a fever, muscle aches and pains, swollen glands, or even damage to their kidneys. Note: Kidney damage, while rare, is a very serious medical condition that requires immediate medical attention.

You already have the rash

If you have poison ivy, stay calm. The rash is just an allergy to the urushiol—not an infection. If you have a severe rash on a large portion of your body, seek immediate medical assistance, especially if you’re experiencing extreme itching, or think you may be experiencing signs of an infection.

If you’re not experiencing a severe reaction, there are ways you can ease the pain of your poison ivy rash discomfort. One of the most well-known ways to reduce itching/swelling is to place the affected area of your body under cold running water for a several minutes. While this provides temporary relief, it helps by reducing and calming the itchy feeling within your nerve endings that are located on the outer layer of your skin. It seems that the cold water prevents the nerve endings from signaling your brain that you are itchy.

There also are products being sold on the market created to aid in the discomfort of poison ivy, oak and sumac rash. The most popular widely used remedy calamine lotion dries pink on the skin as it forms a protective layer over your rash to aid in keeping it clean while it simultaneously relieves your itching. Doctors may prescribe taking stronger remediative action by applying either lotions or taking pills containing antihistamines, as these are most effective in soothing and calming your itchy rash, as the risk of making you to appear groggy.

Either one of these methods, when repeated every few hours, will provide you with some form of relief, but it will not remove your poisoning. You will have to wait several days for the reaction to clear up on its own as there exists no cure for poison ivy rash/contact dermatitis.

Poison ivy rash victim leg. Poison ivy rash victim arm.

Things you shouldn’t do while you have the rash

While you have the rash, you will most-likely be extremely itchy - avoid scratching yourself at all costs. Scratching will not spread the rash however can lead to serious skin infections and as good as it might feel only further irritates your skin causing you to itch still more.

If you must scratch, doctors recommend scratching gently around the perimeter of itchy inflamed areas without actually touching the rash.