{"id":1135,"date":"2011-09-01T10:45:01","date_gmt":"2011-09-01T14:45:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\/?p=1135"},"modified":"2011-09-06T10:48:17","modified_gmt":"2011-09-06T14:48:17","slug":"be-certain-you-know-the-difference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\/2011\/09\/be-certain-you-know-the-difference\/","title":{"rendered":"Be certain you know the difference!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Ken Moore<br \/>\n<em>Flora Columnist<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>As described in last week\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Flora, you want to avoid close contact with ornamental smooth sumac\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s viney cousin, poison ivy, <em>Rhus radicans<\/em>. Some of you will be eager to know that taxonomists have recently upgraded the name to its earlier nomenclature, <em>Toxicodendron radicans<\/em>. It sounds like \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Tox-e-co-den-dron rad-e-cans\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and is certainly more fun to roll off your tongue than is \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcrus rad-e-cans.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 <em>Toxicodendron<\/em> means poisonous tree, a clear warning to keep one\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s distance.<br \/>\n<div id=\"attachment_20568\" style=\"width: 360px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\/?attachment_id=20568\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-20568\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-20568\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Poison-ivy-and-Va-creeper-leaves.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"Poison-ivy-and-Va-creeper-leaves\" width=\"350\" height=\"467\" class=\"size-full wp-image-20568\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-20568\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Leaves of three, let them be\/Leaves of five, stay alive. Photo by Ken Moore<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n<p>I continue to be surprised that, when guiding school groups at a local nature center, I encounter so many youngsters that cannot identify this common poisonous native vine. The earth guide\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s first action is to help the kids distinguish between the not-to-touch poison ivy and the, usually growing nearby, innocent Virginia creeper.<\/p>\n<p>Compare in the photo above the poison ivy compound leaf of three with the Virginia creeper palmately (like a hand) compound leaf of five leaflets. Contact with sap of poison ivy causes a serious rash for most folks, while Virginia creeper is harmless.<\/p>\n<p>Poison ivy can make a ground-covering carpet in sun and shade, and when it finds a tree to climb, the hairy stems are easy to spot as dark wooly cords clinging tightly to the trunk. In contrast, when Virginia creeper climbs a tree, the mature stems are free of such wooly hairs. The little holdfasts of young creeper stems resemble multiple tree frog feet clinging to vertical surfaces.<br \/>\nBoth poison ivy and Virginia creeper have beautiful orange-red fall color that becomes noticeable in the interior of many trees at summer\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s end.<br \/>\n<div id=\"attachment_20569\" style=\"width: 360px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\/?attachment_id=20569\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-20569\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-20569\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Poison-ivy-hairy-vine.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"Poison-ivy-hairy-vine\" width=\"350\" height=\"467\" class=\"size-full wp-image-20569\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-20569\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tree-climbing poison ivy vines are dark and densely hairy. Photo by Ken Moore<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n<p>At this time of year, you may spot the fleeting beauty of Virginia creeper berries turning dark blue on contrasting red stems. The berries of poison ivy are whitish and not very attractive.<br \/>\nThe berries of both vines are important food for birds and other wildlife. Seeds of both are cleaned in the digestive tracts of birds and dropped everywhere. Appreciating the fall color and wildlife value of both vines, I am happy to welcome them in my wild landscape, allowing free reign to Virginia creeper, but trying to restrict poison ivy to the back edges, mostly beyond easy reach. <\/p>\n<p>Virginia creeper\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s official name, <em>Parthenocissus quinguefolia<\/em>, is even more melodious than poison ivy\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s name. The genus name is derived from the Greek, <em>parthenos<\/em> \u00e2\u20ac\u201c virgin \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and <em>cissos<\/em> \u00e2\u20ac\u201c ivy. Imagine a botanist naming this newly discovered \u00e2\u20ac\u0153ivy\u00e2\u20ac\u009d from the Virginia colony in honor of the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153virgin\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Queen Elizabeth I several hundred years ago. The species name, from the Latin, <em>quinque<\/em> \u00e2\u20ac\u201c five \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and <em>folium<\/em> \u00e2\u20ac\u201c leaf \u00e2\u20ac\u201c is purely descriptive of the vine\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s five leaflets.<br \/>\n<div id=\"attachment_20570\" style=\"width: 510px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\/?attachment_id=20570\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-20570\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-20570\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Va-creeper-berries.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"Va-creeper-berries\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" class=\"size-full wp-image-20570\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-20570\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Beautiful Virginia creeper dark berries on red stems signal a tasty treat for birds. Photo by Ken Moore<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n<p>Enjoy remembering the botanical name; it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s great fun to hear it roll off of your tongue. It sounds like \u00e2\u20ac\u0153par-thee-no-siss-us quink-a-fo-lee-ah.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Now try saying the botanical names of both vines out loud and with a little practice, you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re armed to surprise your companions when you discover one or both on your next walk.<br \/>\n<div id=\"attachment_20571\" style=\"width: 360px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\/?attachment_id=20571\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-20571\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-20571\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Va-creeper-holdfasts-.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"_Va-creeper-holdfasts-\" width=\"350\" height=\"467\" class=\"size-full wp-image-20571\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-20571\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Virginia creeper vines climb via tiny holdfasts. Photo by Ken Moore<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n<p><em>Email Ken Moore at flora@carrborocitizen.com.<br \/>\n<\/em><br \/>\nFind previous Ken Moore Citizen columns at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\">The Annotated Flora<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Ken Moore Flora Columnist As described in last week\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Flora, you want to avoid close contact with ornamental smooth sumac\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s viney cousin, poison ivy, Rhus radicans. Some of you will be eager to know that taxonomists have recently upgraded the name to its earlier nomenclature, Toxicodendron radicans. It sounds like \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Tox-e-co-den-dron rad-e-cans\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and is [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,22],"tags":[837,139,140,444,341],"class_list":["post-1135","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ken-moores-flora","category-summer","tag-parthenocissus-quinguefolia","tag-poison-ivy","tag-rhus-radicans","tag-toxicodendron-radicans","tag-virginia-creeper"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1135","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1135"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1135\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1137,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1135\/revisions\/1137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}