0ne of the nicest places to spend an August afternoon is in a patch of poison ivy, in a manner of speaking. Poison ivy (or its close relative, poison oak) pops up around picnic tables or climbs capriciously near campgrounds. It grows best in disturbed soils such as parking pads for motor coaches. Or to put it another way, poison ivy is a peopleloving plant.
Since almost three-quarters of us react unpleasantly to its touch (and since there seems to be no dependable cure except weeks of itching), it’s not a bad idea to develop an arm’s length acquaintanceship with poison ivy. Learn to recognize it as easily as the face of a friend, so that you can treat it like a potential enemy.
The problem with poison ivy comes from a substance in its sap called urushiol. When the sticky sap spreads across your unprotected skin, the urushiol forms a bond with the cells of your exposed exterior. The damage is done when your body tries to protect itself. As your immune system destroys the invading urushiol it also plays havoc with the skin on your arms, legs, or wherever you’ve touched the toxic sap. The result is a rash that can keep you in agony.
Surprisingly, your first encounter with poison ivy seldom produces a reaction. Like many other allergies the first contact serves to sensitize you to the substance. The NEXT time you touch the sap you’ll probably develop a rash within 12 to 48 hours. If you’re extremely sensitive, the first symptoms may come even sooner. Redness is followed by bumps and blisters that break and weep. Your discomfort should reach its peak within several days, but the memory and the itch will linger.
The suffering can be avoided in two ways - avoid the toxic sap or get it off your skin before it has time to trigger a reaction. The second way may be easier than the first.
Poison ivy is so widespread that it’s hard to avoid it completely. Even if you lock yourself in your motor coach, your pet (or your spouse) might bring it home after a hike, and the sap is easily transferable from clothing (or pet) to skin.
If the sap from poison ivy is quickly washed away, it causes no reaction, but quick for one person is slow for another. Someone with only a mild sensitivity can get away with a several-hour delay and not break out. Yet a highly sensitive person may have only a few minutes to take action.
Soap and water work well enough, although one medical authority recommends not using hot water. Washing with rubbing alcohol does an even better job, but in an emergency you can use a solvent such as acetone or gasoline to rinse away the toxic oil. Some sportsmen carry gasoline along for just that purpose.
An even faster remedy for a brush with poison ivy requires knowledge of another plant - jewelweed. We first found out about the healing powers of jewelweed from a ranger in the Arizona mountains when he demonstrated how the plant takes the sting out of stinging nettle. We have since read that it works as well for poison ivy, but fortunately we haven’t had need to try it ourselves.
But whether you learn to identify jewelweed or not, learn the looks of poison ivy. In this case, an ounce of prevention is worth a bottle of calamine lotion.
Poison ivy is usually a vine (turning a beautiful red in autumn and often confused with Virginia creeper), but it sometimes occurs as a shrub. It’s easily identified because its leaflets grow in groups of three. The center leaflet is symmetrical and appears to have its own stem, while the other two seem to be lopsided and stemless. (Poison oak leaves follow the same pattern.)
In spring and summer the leaflets are the key, but the toxins don’t disappear with the fall colors - poison ivy is poisonous all year. In autumn and winter your best guide is the color of the plant’s greenish-white berries. These fruits persist through the winter and into the following spring. Tiny white berries should remind you to keep your hands in your pockets and your feet on the trail.
The only time the berries won’t help is after a hard winter. As many as 60 different birds and mammals eat poison ivy, and if other food is lacking they may strip the plant clean. Woodpeckers particularly like the berries, and like the other creatures, hammerheads suffer no ill effects from their diet.
Euell Gibbons once suggested that humans could benefit from eating the plant in small doses, evidently believing the Indian story that you could develop an immunity by gradually increasing the quantity of poison ivy that you eat. Other sources indicate that this practice could be very dangerous, so we certainly wouldn’t recommend it.
If you happen to be one of the unfortunate few who are extremely allergic to the plant, a doctor may recommend immunotherapy (allergy shots). They won’t actually make you immune to poison ivy, but they help lessen the symptoms. The rest of us will just have to watch our step and remember the useful rhyme: Leaves three, let it be.
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