Poisonous Plants

Identifying Poison Ivy and Others

Florida parks and woodlands are favorite places for many people who enjoy outdoor activities such as camping, hiking, fishing, and biking. Unfortunately, every year numerous Floridians are accidentally poisoned by one of several plants typically found in these locations.

Quick Facts
Poison Ivy & Virginia Creeper
Poison Oak
Poison Sumac & Look-a-likes

Quick Facts

Contact with any of these plants can cause severe skin dermatitis.
Poisoning results from contact with the sap of the plant. This can occur directly by touching the plant, or indirectly from animals, clothes, or other items that have come into contact with the plant. Particles in the smoke of the burning plant may carry toxins as well.
Symptoms may appear within a few hours or a few days. Itching and burning of the skin may be followed by a rash, redness, swelling, and watery blistering. Infection of the blisters may cause systemic complications.
Individuals vary in their sensitivity to the poison in these plants. Approximately twenty-five percent of the population are not sensitive, but anyone may become sensitive after repeated exposure.
Poisoning by these plants is preventable if you know how to identify them. Children should be taught to recognize these plants, particularly poison ivy, which is by far the most common.

Poison Ivy & Virginia Creeper

Poison Ivy

Of the poisonous plants in Florida's natural areas, poison ivy is the most commonly encountered by humans.

Poison ivy is a woody shrub or vine with hairy looking aerial roots. It grows to ten feet or more, climbing high on trees, walls and fences or trails along the ground.
All parts of poison ivy, including the roots, are poisonous at all times of the year.
It may flourish in the deep woods, where soil moisture is plentiful, or in very dry soil on the most exposed hillsides. Plants are most abundant along old fence rows and edges of paths and roadways.
Leaf forms vary among plants--or even on the same plant--but the leaves almost always consist of three leaflets. Remember the old saying, "Leaflets three, let it be."
Flowers and fruit are always in clusters on slender stems that originate in the angles between the leaves and woody twigs. Berrylike fruits usually have a white, waxy appearance.

Virginia Creeper: A Look-alike Plant

The most common poison ivy look-alike is Virginia creeper. It can easily be distinguished from poison ivy by the following characteristics:

Virginia Creeper has three to five divided leaflets, which are palmate like an outstretched hand.
Blue-black berries grow along the stem.
The vine can be either trailing or climbing.

Poison Oak

Poison oak--also called "oakleaf ivy" or "oakleaf poison ivy"--is more distinctive than some other types of ivy.

It usually does not climb as a vine, but occurs as a low growing shrub. Stems generally grow upright.
Leaflets occur in threes--as in other ivy--but are lobed like some types of oak leaves. The middle leaflet is usually lobed alike on both margins and resembles a small oak leaf, while the two lateral leaflets are often irregularly lobed.
The size range of poison oak leaves varies considerably, even on the same plant.

Poison Sumac & Look-a-likes

Poison Sumac

Poison sumac is also known as swamp sumac, poison elder, poison ash, poison dogwood and thunderwood. It does not have variable forms like those of poison ivy.

It grows as a course woody shrub or small tree and never in the vinelike form of its poison ivy relatives. Mature plants range in height from five or six to twenty-five feet.
This shrub is usually associated with swamps and bogs. It generally grows along the margin of an area of wet acid soil.
Poison sumac shrubs usually do not have a symmetrical treelike appearance. Instead, they lean and have branched stems that have about the same diameter from ground level to middle height.
The leaves consist of leaflets arranged in pairs with a single leaflet at the end of the midrib. The leaflets are elongated ovals without marginal teeth or serration and a smooth, velvety texture. Their color ranges from bright orange to green with scarlet midribs to brilliant red-orange or russet.
Small yellowish-green flowers grow in clusters on slender stems arising from the axis of leaves along the smaller branches. The flowers mature into ivory-white or green-colored fruits resembling those of poison oak or poison ivy, but they are usually are less compact and hang in loose clusters.

Look-a-likes

Throughout most of the range where poison sumac grows, three nonpoisonous species may also occur: smooth sumac, staghorn sumac, and dwarf sumac.

All three species have red fruits that form a distinctive terminal seed head. These are easily distinguishable from the slender hanging clusters of the poison sumac.
The leaves of smooth sumac and staghorn sumac have many leaflets (usually more than thirteen), which are slender and lance shaped and have a toothed margin.
Like poison sumac, dwarf sumac has fewer leaflets that are more oval shaped with smooth or even margins, but dwarf sumac leaves have a winged midrib. Poison sumac never has the wing margin on the midrib.

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