Poison Ivy

Toxicodendron radicans (L.) Kuntze

By Brandi Barton

http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=TORA2

Description:

Size/Form:

Poison ivy grows as a high-climbing woody vine or a small shrub that grows
along the ground. Poison ivy vines climb up trees by aerial roots and grow up to
150' in length. Branches from the vine may deceptively look like branches of the
tree. Poison ivy shrubs grow from 1½' to 6½' high.
Leaves:

The leaves are compound, alternate, and deciduous. They have three leaflets
that are usually 2" to 8" long and 1" to 5" wide, and ovate to elliptic in outline.
The thin leaflets have entire to serrate to shallowly lobed margins and the lower
leaf surface is light green and slightly hairy. The leaves usually have a longer,
symmetric, terminal leaflet often with one lobe on each side of the leaflet. The
two, asymmetric leaflets on opposite sides of the terminal one have a single
lobe so they look like mittens with a thumb.
Fruit:

The fruit is a dry, round drupe about ¼" wide, tan or whitish, and grooved. The
seeds have an oily covering and are primarily dispersed by animals. Since the
covering is buoyant, the fruit is also dispersed by waterways.
Stem:

New stems are gray-brown and hairy but they gradually turn hairless with age.
Older stems can be 2" to 4" wide.
Habitat:

It can be found on a wide variety of sites from moist and shady to open and dry.
Across this wide range of habitats it most frequently occurs in shady forests.
http://www.sfrc.ufl.edu/4h/Poison_ivy/poisoivy.htm

Classification:

Kingdom Plantae – Plants

Subkingdom Tracheobionta – Vascular plants
Superdivision Spermatophyta – Seed plants
Division Magnoliophyta – Flowering plants
Class Magnoliopsida – Dicotyledons
Subclass Rosidae
Order Sapindales
Family Anacardiaceae – Sumac family
Genus Toxicodendron Mill. – poison oak
Species Toxicodendron radicans (L.) Kuntze – eastern poison ivyP

Key Terms:

aerial roots: roots that are formed in and exposed to air

buoyant seed: characteristic of some seeds which allow them to float down
waterways
drupe: a fruit with a thin outer skin, soft pulpy middle, and hard stony central part
that encloses a seed.
terminal leaflet: last leaf, end leaf