Be Careful of Poisonous Plants… and Pesky ones Too!

Be Careful of Poisonous Plants… and Pesky ones Too!

By Steve Weisman

I don’t think anything beats being out in nature on a nice summer day. Whether it is going for a walk on a neighborhood pathway, along a favorite stream or in the woods…a gentle breeze and sunny skies make for the perfect combination. UNLESS you happen to come across these three poisonous plants: poison ivy, stinging nettles and wild parsnip. If your skin does come into contact, good chances are you will feel the pain! However, these three plants should not keep you out of your favorite summer haunts. Instead, we need to know how to recognize and avoid, and if you come into physical contact what to do to minimize the effect on the skin.

Poison Ivy
The one that all of us have been warned the most since we were little is poison ivy. Remember the nursery rhyme? Leaves of three, leave them be! Probably the most common identification characteristic is to think of three (leaves): a stem with a larger leaf at the end and two smaller leaves off to the sides of a long stem with no thorns. It is most commonly found as a climbing vine on a tree trunk or up a fence or as a low shrub. The plant is reddish in the spring, green in the summer and yellow/orange in the fall. When the leaves are green, they are a dark and waxy green when viewed from above. Poison ivy will produce small opaque white or yellowish berries.

Coming into contact with poison ivy most often results in a red, painful rash, caused by a sticky oil called urushiol. Some people that inhale the urushiol will get a very serious allergic reaction. The oil can penetrate the skin within 5-10 minutes with a rash appearing as quickly as four hours or the next day. In rare occasions, the rash might not appear for 2-3 weeks.

If you know you have been in contact with poison ivy, first wash off with vinegar followed by washing with water, but make sure it is not hot water. Do not take a shower or over wash in order to minimize spreading the rash. Next wash off with a dish soap that will readily break up oil. If the rash has already appeared, rinse off the affected area, and then one of the old methods of drawing out the poison and sooth the rash is making a paste of baking soda. Wash the affected clothes separately from other clothes. Putting an ice pack or a cold towel with ice can help alleviate pain.

For people that break into severe rash and blisters, it is a good idea to see a physician or head to the emergency room.

Two plants are sometimes mistaken as poison ivy. The first is the Virginia creeper, which actually has five leaves and has a woody vine. Its berries are blue-black. The box elder will sometimes have three leaves in the spring, but later in the season will have five to seven per stem.

Stinging Nettles
Stinging nettles are often found in woodlands near streams, in disturbed areas, pastures, farmyards and along roadsides. They can be a short six inches in height or several feet tall. Leaves grow opposite each other on the stem. However, the wood nettle plant has alternate leaves and grows in shaded forests, but will sting you just the same as the stinging nettle. The stinging nettles are found on the stem of the plant, which is stiff.

Leaves are about 2-5 inches long with jagged edges, found in opposing pairs along the upper half of the stalk. Leaves are pointed at the tips, with a heart-shaped base and indented veins. The plant will have small “hairs” up the stalk and stems. This is where the stinging comes from. As you brush up against it, plant hairs inject acid into the skin, almost like getting a shot. However, the skin’s reaction is milder than with poison ivy or wild parsnip, and it usually clears up within just a few minutes.

To avoid discomfort, however, wash the affected area with soap and water as soon as possible to both relieve the sting and to remove the nettle hairs. The baking soda concoction also helps sooth the rash. Avoid scratching or rubbing the affected area.

Wild Parsnip
Wild parsnip is an exotic that is spreading like crazy across Iowa. Its telltale characteristic is the dreaded yellow-green umbrel flower that appears from May to July. Wild parsnip looks like several other native species, like Queen Anne’s Lace — which has a white flower, and it looks almost identical to golden Alexander.

The best way to tell the two plants apart is by the leaves. Wild parsnip has deeply forked leaves, while those of golden Alexander are overall smooth with fine serrations.

Wild parsnip has been in the news a lot these past couple of years. It shows up in huge groupings in ditches, along road edges and approaches, along the edges of trees and bike trails.

Of these three poisonous plants, the wild parsnip really carries a wallop! When crushed, wild parsnip releases a sap that if left on the skin can react with sunlight and cause a damaging and painful burn.

If you get sap on your skin, wash the affected area immediately with soap and cold water. It is really important to stay out of the sunlight for 48 hours because it can take several days for a reaction to occur. Sunlight really exasperates the rash as the plant’s chemicals causes a reaction in the sunlight that breaks down human cells and tissues.

Apply sunscreen to affected areas if you can’t stay out of the sun. A lot of people have ended up in the emergency room after coming into physical contact with the weed. The rash can last for weeks and the scars can be detected for years. The problem with this rash is that it often explodes into blisters. This is how the Wisconsin Natural Resources magazine describes the rash. “In more severe cases, the skin reddens first, then blisters rise – some are impressively large – and for a while the area feels like it has been scalded. Places where skin is most sensitive (arms, legs, torso, face, neck) are most vulnerable. Moisture from perspiration speeds the absorption of the psoralens.” If the sap gets into the eyes, it can cause temporary or permanent blindness to both humans and pets.

So if you’re outside where wild parsnip is present, just practice caution. Wear long pants, long sleeves and gloves as well as eye safety equipment if you are going to come into contact with it.

By knowing the characteristics to help us steer clear of these three poisonous plants, we can safely enjoy Iowa’s great outdoors. To learn more about these three plants, go to the Iowa DNR website and search for poisonous plants.

While the aforementioned plants in the article pack a nasty punch if you come in contact with them. The species below are deemed to be just a nuisance as they will stick to virtually any type of clothing material they come in contact with. The end result is a painstaking task of removing these little buggars from your clothes, shoes, hats, gloves, etc. Hence the reason why sportsmen hate them!

I have heard people using duct tape, credit cards, scotch brite pads, and even dull knives to remove them from clothing. While this gets some of them off it still leaves us madder than a hornet performing the task. I have known some folks to simply pick up the piece of clothing and pitch it in the garbage it was so covered in stickers. There are a few great products on the market that are specifically designed to remove these annoying weeds that I would recommend to any outdoorsman.

These weeds are known as hitchhiker weeds, meaning they use a vertebrate host to transport their seeds to a different location where the “offspring” can continue to grow and build the family tree or in this case weed. Pretty amazing how the whole process takes place. A pesky little weed that we think nothing about has a system so complex to sustain reproduction.