Planet Poison Ivy

Posted on by Michigan in Pictures

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Vacant Factory

Vacant Factory, photo by Voxphoto.

I was driving the other day and noticing that the ivy seems especially profuse this summer. I was ready to chalk it up solely to the warm, wet summer of 2010 when my daughter Kenyon told me about this interview of Dr. Lewis Ziska, plant physiologist for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service by Michele Norris on NPR:

NORRIS: We’ve long known that poison ivy is nasty stuff. Even if you barely brush up against it, you can get an angry, weeping, contagious, red rash that takes weeks to heal. Well, it turns out that poison ivy, along with its voracious cousins poison oak and poison sumac, is even more of a nuisance this summer. The plants are spreading faster, growing larger, showing up in new places and becoming more toxic. It’s the kind of thing that’s so scary, it almost deserves its own soundtrack.

…NORRIS: Why is the plant spreading more and becoming more voracious? Why is it growing larger?

Dr. ZISKA: One of the things that we think is occurring is that as carbon dioxide is increasing in the atmosphere – carbon dioxide, as everyone knows, is a basic greenhouse gas, but it’s also plant food. And plants take that carbon, and they convert it into sugars and carbohydrates and so forth.

But not all plants respond the same way to that resource, and we think that vines, particularly vines like poison ivy or kudzu or other noxious weeds, seem to show a much stronger response to the change in CO2 than other plant species. So on average, the poison ivy plant of, say, 1901, can grow up to 50 to 60 percent larger as of 2010 just from the change in CO2 alone, all other things being equal.

And as a result of that change, we see not only more growth but also a more virulent form of the oil within poison ivy. The oil is called urushiol, and it’s that oil that causes that causes that rash to occur on your skin when you come into contact with it. Read on >

Check this out bigger and in in Ross’s A Few in Color slideshow and know your poison ivy!

47 thoughts on “Planet Poison Ivy”

  4. Hi! Since I live in Michigan and my house has woods behind it…this is good to know. :) So far this year, my kids have been fortunate to escape the horrible rash caused by poison ivy. Take care.

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  5. I am from India, and I found such plant in here…do u?

    One fact is that when joining word press my intention was blogg something, now I am constant reader of wordpress..

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  6. I am from India, and I don’t found such a plant in here…do u?

    One fact is that when joining word press my intention was blogg something, now I am constant reader of wordpress..

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  7. For most people, certain times of the year are worse than others. In the spring when the plant is actively growing or blooming, some can get a reaction just being near it. But later in the year as the plant has slowed growing, most will not get a rash by simply touching the leaves. One needs to trample it and break the stems in order to spread the oil to the skin. Worst is getting the oil on your hands, because it can then be transfered to anywhere else on your body your hands touch – especially sensitive areas.

    I certainly hope it is not growing more vigorously – I hate the stuff.

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  9. What is really funny is that my mom’s doctor told her poison ivy is extinct. Hmmm still trying to figure out how she gets it each summer when it is extinct. She too is highly allergic to poison ivy. I thankfully have never reacted to it. Knock on wood that I don’t.

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  10. I’ve read poison ivy in emergency books when I was a kid. I don’t know if we have a similar plant here, and I never thought that this plant is this scary.

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  15. I’m currently suffering from poison oak after hiking a trail along the columbia river gorge. That plant is brutal! Thanks for sharing

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  17. What a fascinating post(and very cool picture)! I live in northern Michigan an have noticed a huge change in my mother’s morning glory vines this summer that I believed to be the fault of unusualy warm weather. Now I wonder if co2 is the culprit?

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  21. Great background info on this interesting plant – I almost never see it but it is interesting to me how great some plants can be for us and how bad others can be – it is a pretty cool world we all share.
    Thanks

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  23. I guess, thats like clandestinic.. as in more CO2, more poisonous weeds, more damage to human…
    The cycle continues..
    The pic is so colorful that it seemed pretty hard for me to call that a poison plant..
    ALAS..

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  29. Poison Ivy sure is a pretty plant, and I love this picture.
    Some people have no reaction to the plant’s toxins, and even if you’ve never been allergic before, you can have a reaction.
    Poison Ivy can spread to the mouth, and eyes, and even internally… if you only get it on your arms and legs you’re lucky.

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  36. Saw a strand of ivy today and wondered if it was the poisonous kind. Didn’t touch it though, figured it was. I have touched poison oak and that was a horrible experience I did not want to repeat.

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  37. Nice photo!

    It seems all I have to do is look at this plant and I get a rash. I had a small outbreak earlier this summer and was worried I’d have to be on predisone the only cure I’ve known of for years (I get it that bad). My wife had this Clobetasol Propionate Cream, USP 0.05% for another condition and this stuff cured me within a day. Hope this is a help to those that suffer from this plant that seems to be everywhere I enjoying being in the wild.
    I’ve also gotten it in the winter while building a fire for cooking potatoes on an island on a day canoe trip down the river.

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  39. The first day I saw a poison ivy was when my school was going to a picnic. I always thought that poison ivy was bad after my friend touched it and the trip was canceled to her and went to the school. But I guess not…

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  43. Whoa! Fascinating scoop! Same as in my area of New York, now that I think about it…someone said that all the various effects of climate change wouldn’t really be known, and this seems to be one of the unexpected ones!

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  44. Ahhhh! Makes me think of the movie where Will Smith is the last person on the planet, and he roams around, and there are strange wild animals, and plants growing every where. I guess one could assume that the plants are vines, but then again, if there was no more human population to give rise to the CO2 emissions, then would there be vines? Of course there would be!

    On that note, I’m still going to go hiking! http://www.exerciseandmind.com/walking.php
    I just might wear long leggings now… :)

    Happy trails.

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