The Itch and You

Image Gallery ILLUSTRATION BY KAY HOLMES STAFFORD

When "leaflets three'' won't let you be.

Folk treatments include gunpowder, toothpaste and horse urine.

FINALLY YOU YANK OUT THE LAST few stubborn weedsa bunch of vines with stringy roots-and stand to admire the new perennial bed you've just cleared along the edge of woods bordering your driveway. "Whew, it's hot," you think, wiping your brow. You rub your back, aching from hours of stooped-over labor, and massage a near-terminally kinked neck. Still, it feels good to have that work done; with the area grubbed out you can start planting tomorrow. Now for a nice cold drink and maybe a little nap.

You walk into the garage, toss your work gloves onto a bench and dust your shirt and pants off a bit before going upstairs. On your way to the refrigerator you stop off in the bathroom-nature calls. A few minutes later, frosty mug in hand, you settle back in an easy chair. Ahhhh. A half-hour later, you're asleep.

Poor, miserable devil.

You don't know it yet, but you've just joined at least 2 million other Americans

who, in 1989, will become all too well acquainted with the power of poison ivy or one of its near relatives-poison oak and poison sumac. Sometime within the next six to 96 hours, you're likely to find yourself agonized by an itching, watering rash on your back, neck, face, arms, legs andum, elsewhere. If you're lucky, the rash will heal after a week or two-or maybe three.

Nah, Not Me

Having read the preceding scenario, you might be thinking, "Nah, that's not me. I know what poison ivy looks like. I wouldn't go pulling up handfuls of the stuff."Or maybe you're one of those who are still saying, "Nah, that's not me; I'm immune. I can wade through the stuff."

Don't be so sure on either count. Please.

When it comes to "knowing" what the plant looks like, it's wise and prudent to remember that poison ivy is not only the mosquito of the plant world but also the chameleon. Not even botanists can agree on how many kinds of poison ivies and oaks there are-or even, in some cases, which plant is which. Few life-forms (other than perhaps homo sapiens) are as variable in appearance.

Depending on the individual plant, common poison ivy is a vine, a shrub or a treelike bush-or sometimes some of each. It creeps, it stands erect, it climbs. Its leaves are sometimes green, sometimes yellow or red, sometimes lance-shaped, sometimes oval, sometimes lobed, sometimes toothed, sometimes smooth-edged, sometimes shiny, sometimes dull, sometimes spotted.

To make matters worse, the plant tends to grow in the same places as-and intermingles with-harmless but similar-looking species such as Virginia creeper, hog peanut and box elder. It hides in other ways, too. Below ground, ordinary-looking (but rash-instigating) roots extend well beyond the plant, waiting to be exposed and pulled up by an unsuspecting gardener or landscaper. And in late fall and winter, a few scraggly bare branches or a hairy climbing vine may be all that shows. So much for the old adage, "Leaflets three, let it be."