“Leaves of three, let it be.”
I took some poison ivy photos on our walk yesterday. The old addage, “Leaves of three, let it be,” is a general description of this itch inducing plant, but there are some non-poisonous three leaved varieties of plants as well
One of the ways to tell poison ivy apart from other three leave plants is that the midrib (larger central vein) on the leaf is off center. See how one side of the leaf looks wider than the other side? This is poison ivy.
This stuff seems to spring up right after the daffodils around here, which reminds me to make a big batch of green salve. I will post that recipe soon. It’s the only thing I’ve ever used that actually helps to cure poison ivy.
Poison ivy grows along the ground, but it also likes to climb trees. Here is a younger vine climbing up a tree trunk:
The older vines look hairy. So warn young Tarzan to avoid the hairy vines!
Not everyone is allergic to poison ivy, and a person can suddenly become allergic after years of being exposed and not having any reaction. Which is what happened to me. I became allergic to it in my teens, after years of rambling about in the woods.
Wanna know more? Check out this great .pdf on iding poison ivy, put together by herbalist Jim McDonald: poison ivy ID
Next, I will show you another common plant that we’ll use to make a poison ivy cure: plantain. Not the banana kind…the herbal kind. It’s super common, and handy to know for bug bites, stings, and rash reactions like poison ivy.
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