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Home > Healthy You > Healthy You Magazine > Protecting Your Health > Plants That Bite

Plants That Bite

Poison Ivy

Poison ivy in summer

  • Leaves come in clusters of three.
  • Some (but not all) leaves are notched.
  • New leaves are shiny and reddish, mature leaves are dull green.

Poison ivy can trail on the ground, form a shrub or climb trees. Be careful if you cut down a tree with hairy vines—you can get a bad case of poison ivy.

If poison ivy had teeth, you’d at least feel the pain and know to treat the “wound” immediately. Instead, this pesky plant and its cousins, poison oak and poison sumac, cause a delayed allergic reaction. The culprit is uru-shiol, an oil common throughout the poison ivy family and present in all parts of the plant.

Typically, you don’t know you’ve been exposed to urushiol until the symptoms appear 12-48 hours later, says family physician Gina Fitzsimmons, D.O., of Lehigh Valley Hospital and Health Network. Although some people seem to be immune, with repeat exposure most of us will get the fiercely itchy rash wherever the plant touched our skin. Airborne particles released by burning plants also can cause a reaction.

If you know you’ve been exposed, wash immediately with any type of soap and be careful not to spread the oil by touch. Urushiol begins to penetrate the skin after about 10 minutes, Fitzsimmons says.

Obviously, the best strategy is to avoid exposure, but that’s not always easy. Your pet, your shoes or jeans, gardening tools or sporting equipment can carry the oil for weeks or months. Start by learning how to identify the plants in every season. The bare vines in winter are just as allergenic as the fresh leaves in spring. Wear clothes that cover your arms, legs and ankles, and launder them when you come inside.

To relieve the itch, try these suggestions:
  • Cold wet compresses on the rash several times a day
  • Cool baths with colloidal oatmeal (Aveeno)
  • Topical steroid creams
  • Calamine lotion
  • Oral antihistamines like Benadryl to help you sleep at night
  • No bandages—the rash needs exposure to air
  • Avoid scratching if you can. It won’t spread the rash, but it can cause bacterial infection. If nothing seems to help or the rash is severe, see your physician. You may need oral or injected steroids.
Want to Know More? Click here for a chart showing the poison ivy family in different seasons or Outsmarting Poison Ivy and Its Cousins.

This page last updated 2/12/08 04:08 PM
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July August 2005

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