Poison Ivy – Toxicodendron spp.
Bloom time – June
I’ve had a long and rather turbulent relationship with Poison Ivy. But in more recent years I’ve come to understand it, to make peace with it, and even to love it.
When I was a child I was highly allergic to it. I’d get a rash just from looking at it. (Not really, that’s an exaggeration, but not much of one.) I know the old moniker, ‘Leaves of three let it be,’ but that didn’t seem to keep me out of it. Besides, lots of plants have leaves of three, and I couldn’t just stay away from plants.
My worst experience with it was when I was about 10 years old, maybe 11. Me and a few friends had built some lean-to shelters in the woods. We placed them in a circle and made a fire ring in the middle of them. We got the fire going really good, and as happens with kids and fire, pyromania took hold of us. We started grabbing random plants and throwing them into the fire. You see where this is going? Like I said, we were out of our minds. One of the plants we were throwing on there was this long green viney plant that was growing up the trees. We danced around the fire, being silly, telling dumb jokes and laughing uncontrollably, as kids do. Eventually we settled down, put the fire out and went home.
Sometime the next day I started to feel really bad. My memory gets pretty vague at this point. The next two weeks were like a surrealistic nightmare. I went to the hospital (1 of only 3 times I’ve ever been), they gave me all kinds of shots and medications and sent me home the next day. I stayed in bed for two weeks. The smoke from the burning leaves had gotten into my trachea and lungs, as well as on my skin. I remember my mom coming in every day to give me medicine and rub Calamine lotion on my skin. She kept the bottle in the fridge. It was so cold, and the cold was both shocking and soothing. But I was young, and resilient and eventually I recovered.
Many years, and Poison Ivy rashes later, I did something that almost rivals the fire for stupidity. When I was in my early 20’s I was at a music festival in Illinois. It was on a farm surrounded by a gorgeously lush wood. There were these great big vines hanging from the trees, and me and one of our friends kids decided we were gonna be Tarzan and climb those vines. And climb them we did. We climbed and we swung and we hooted and hollered. It was a blast. Until someone pointed out that they were Poison Ivy vines. What!? I took a closer look at the leaves, and sure enough. I made a half-hearted attempt to wash the oils off, but I knew it was useless. We’d been climbing those vines for nearly an hour. Two days later the rash appeared, just a little at first, like it does. Five days later I was covered in it. It was real bad. I could barely function for a while.
That was over twenty years ago now. Since then I have been much more careful. But Poison Ivy is really good at hiding in plain sight. It sneaks up on you and surrounds you. There are times when you’ll just find yourself in a patch of it, and you’re like, wait, what? How did I get in here?
Poison Ivy and wild plum, reservoir ridge, ft. collins. may
Having kids of my own has made me much more diligent about finding it before it finds me. The natural tendency of a parent to protect their children from the traumas they endured as kids just works that way. My kids are really good at spotting Poison Ivy, something I wasn’t at their ages. And they don’t seem to be allergic to it. They can walk right through it with no reaction.
When you spend time looking for something, it’s only natural that you also spend time thinking about that something. And this is how I came to see Poison Ivy as a teacher and a friend. And indeed, a protector of wilderness. Poison Ivy forces you to pay attention, not always right away, but in retrospect. And it provides ample opportunity for thinking about where you’ve been. And that, I believe, is it’s greatest gift to us. Those rashes, that pain, they make us look more closely at nature. They slow us down, stop us from just trampling blindly through the woods. They tell us to actually look where we’re going. To notice what’s around us. I have learned a lot from looking for, and at, Poison Ivy. Found plants that I would’ve overlooked. Found incredible beauty in the plant itself, and in the environments where it grows. Have learned to recognize and love it’s flowers, it’s berries, it’s spring growth and it’s brilliant fall colors. It’s really an amazing plant. And those oils that cause us to break out, that’s urushiol, which is used in Japan on woodenware similar to glazing ceramics. It’s worked down into a hard, glass like substance that’s totally non-reactive once dry.
I have heard my whole life that the american indians would eat the young leaves in spring to build up immunity to it. I have always been terrified to try that. If you’ve ever had reactions like I’ve had, you’ll understand that fear. Nevertheless, I’ve told my kids this legend countless times, and every spring they kid with me, trying to get me to eat some Poison Ivy. And of course, I laugh and say no. Until recently. Last year I almost mustered up the courage to do it. Almost.
This year, I was out looking for a certain plant down by the river. I knew it would be small, and hiding in taller foliage of other plants, and I was solely focused on it. I’ve heard this often happens with mushroom hunters, but you get an image of the plant you’re looking for in your mind and kinda block out everything else so you can find it. Plants can be really good at hiding. Anyway, I found my sandaled, shorts wearing self in the middle of a young Poison Ivy patch. It was small still, with red waxy leaves. Which is the perfect time to eat leaves of almost any plant. I knew I’d gotten the oil on me, so I thought, ok, here goes. I picked a leaf and ate it. A very small one mind you. Nothing happened. A week went by, and no rash on my tongue, throat, skin, anywhere. Not even a hint of one. A week after I tried a bigger piece, and rubbed a bit of it on the back of my hand. Again, nothing. So, while more testing may be necessary, so far the results are good. Those indians knew what they were doing. Poison Ivy itself is the antidote to Poison Ivy. It is the teacher, and I am, forever, a student. Pay attention, and take care.
Poison Ivy in May, I ate the leaf on the far right
