Avoiding the poison plants
Posted: Jun 5th 2008 12:00PM by Maggie Vink
Filed under: General Health
There is a wooded area in a nearby community that's open to the public. Though it's smack-dab in the middle of a city, you really feel like you're escaping to the wilderness there. My son and I like to visit it for day hikes and he also likes to ride his bike on the trails. Though the trails are groomed and maintained for public use, off-trail it's a woods like any other. If you're not careful, you can definitely run across some of the poison plants -- poison ivy, poison oak, and poison sumac.
You can avoid the itch by recognizing the plants:
- Poison ivy. In some areas poison, ivy grows as a vine. In others it's more of a shrub. The identifying trait is it's three-leaf configuration.
- Poison oak. Poison oak is somewhat similar in appearance to poison ivy, but the leaves are shaped more like an oak tree's. The underside of the leaf is lighter than the top and is covered in hair.
- Poison sumac. Common in swampy areas, poison sumac is a woody shrub with leaves arranged in pairs and clusters of green berries.
Tags: biking, hiking, itch, itching, itchy, poison ivy, poison oak, poison sumac, PoisonIvy, PoisonOak, PoisonSumac, summer, trail, trail hiking, TrailHiking, woods
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