In praise of poison ivy (LA Times Op-Ed)

[pinto]

Interesting Sunday Op-Ed piece ~ pinto

In praise of poison ivy

It is a fascinating, sometimes beautiful and environmentally essential plant.

By Deborah Blum
June 26, 2011

I still remember the moment in my childhood in which I lost all faith in the innocent purity of plants. One day, I was a carefree adolescent at summer camp, exploring the leafy woods with my fellow campers. A couple of days later, I was an illustration for a medical textbook. "The worst case of poison ivy I've ever seen!" the camp nurse told the other staffers as she trotted me and my dime-sized blisters around for inspection.

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It's a story that places me among the countless Americans — health officials estimate there are more than 350,000 new cases every year — who've tangled with poison ivy or its relatives, poison oak and poison sumac, and regretted it. I may, however, be one of the few ivy victims who have come to admire the enemy. In fact — have I spent too much time in the woods recently? — my purpose here as summer begins is to defend and even praise the fascinating, sometimes beautiful and environmentally essential poison ivy plant.

The triumvirate of poison oak, poison ivy and poison sumac has been admirably holding its own against humans for centuries. Poison ivy acquired its unaffectionate label from one of the 17th century British explorers, Capt. John Smith. A founder of early English settlements in Virginia, Smith is probably best remembered for his story of being rescued from unfriendly Indians by a young tribe member named Pocahontas. He apparently fared less well with the native plants, writing in his journal about one that upon "being touched causeth rednesse, itchynge, and lastly, blisters." He named it poison ivy, after its resemblance to the ornamental ivies of his home country.

And poison oak and ivy — if one can manage objectivity — really are ornamental and startlingly pretty, especially when they unfurl crimson leaves in the spring or blaze into fiery copper in autumn. In fact — and this is confirmed by the website at Monticello — President Thomas Jefferson once ordered poison ivy as a decorative vine for the garden of his beloved Virginia home.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-blum-poison-ivy-20110626,0,3150432.story

[Webster Green]

1. Poison oak is abundant on the mountain where I live.

It's a task to keep it from invading our living areas. There are some incredible specimens in the woods here. Decades old vines have climbed up into the redwood trees and get bigger every year.

When I lived in Humboldt County, I got a series of urushiol injections in the early spring to build an immunity to the stuff. It seemed to have an effect, though I never went out of my way to really put it to the test.

[elleng]

2. itchynge!!!!

:hi:

[Igel]

3. I've planted vines to cover much of the southern exposure of our house.

I very nearly planted poison ivy.

Ornamental, fast growing, deciduous, pretty drought tolerant. And, as a bonus, if anybody tries to get in a window or damage the landscaping, well, at least they'd pay for it. (As an aside, neither me nor my son are bothered by poison ivy. My wife is another story, so I opted for Parthenocissus cinquefolia.)

[Tesha]

4. In our area, Virginia Creeper (p.c.) and Poision Ivy compete for the same biome niches.

Anywhere it's damp, you're likely to see one or the
other but rarely both. We had some poison ivy on one
of our hillsides and as we beat it back over the years,
the Virginia Creeper moved right in behind it.

We took that as a "good thing" ;)

Tesha

[dhpgetsit]

5. I got into some poison oak this past February

I was doing fence work and without its leaves it is easy to miss, but still very potent.

I have no fondness for the stuff whatsoever. :D