Gardening with Tm

Pretty Little Poisonous Plants 

I was walking through the lower part of the property looking for materials to make wreaths to sell a few weeks ago, and was about to pull some vines from a tree, when this ugly thought came to mind.  Don’t pull that vine because it is poison oak.  Most folks do not realize that it is just as potent in the middle of the winter as it is in the heat of the summer.  It is also just as potent after it dies as it is while it is alive.

  My adorable wife can just walk by the stuff and break out.  When Jeremy was a boy, someone was burning a pile of wood across the road and he got the smoke in his lungs and off to the doctor he had to go.  Smoke inhalation from these plants can cause not only a skin rash, but also a nasty and painful allergic reaction to the lungs and nasal passage.  Poison oak, ivy, and sumac are beautiful, green vines that contain a very potent oil called Urushiol.  The danger of this plant is you don’t even have to touch it.  It can be on garden tools, gloves and clothing, or even an animal’s fur.  Doctors say that three out of four folks are sensitive in some degree to these plants and just because it doesn’t affect you this time doesn’t mean it won’t next time.

  The reaction to poison oak is not an instant reaction and may pop up in as little as a few hours to a few days or even a couple of weeks.  The rash appears as red streaks or patterns on the skin where contact was originally made and is transferred to other parts of the body after you scratch the infected area and scratch somewhere else. 

  Poison oak, ivy, and sumac all grow in this area with poison oak seemingly being the worst culprit around our neck of the woods.  Poison oak and poison ivy are both vine like with green leaves and are similar in appearance, with poison ivy having clusters of leaves in groups of three and poison oak having leaves also in groups of three that are shaped more like an oak leaf.  Poison sumac grows as a woody shrub and each stem will have seven to thirteen leaves arranged in pairs with clusters of green drooping berries.

  If you think that you have been exposed to one of these plants, wash the affected areas with cool water and soap immediately if not sooner.  Change clothes and wash them along with camping gear and any other items that may be affected.  Clean any garden tools that you may have been using to remove the oil from them and bathe any pets that may have come in contact with the plants. 

  There are many products out there that claim to help with the itching associated with these plants, but where one will work for some, it doesn’t for others.  If the rash is mild you can try some of these, but if the rash is severe, I recommend to go on and see the doctor.  I do not seem to be affected but we usually take Ms. Janet on to the doctor for a shot.

  I recommend to teach  yourselves and your children to identify these plants and remove them from your landscape.  If you are allergic or even think that you are, hire someone else to do it for you.  As the young lady in my last class at Ag Safety Day said “Leaves of three-Stay away from me!!!