Title: Poison Ivy
Additional Names: Poison vine; markweed
Literature References: Toxicodendron radicans (L.) Kuntze, Anacardiaceae. Erroneously called poison oak. Vigorous woody vine, shrub, or subshrub with trifoliate, alternate leaves. Habit. All states of the United States east of the Cascade Mountains, the Great Basin, and the Mojave Desert (absent in Nevada); all states of Mexico except in the Yucatan Peninsula and northern Baja California. Its southern limit is Huehuetenango Department of Guatemala and its northern limit is the 52nd parallel of latitude. It is found in Bermuda and several islands in the Bahamas, in Japan, and in the middle elevations in the mountains of Taiwan and of central and western China. Review: Gillis in J. M. Kingsbury, Poisonous Plants of the United States and Canada (Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, N. J., 1964) pp 209-214. Constit. Toxic constituent: urushiol, q.v.: Dawson, Trans. N.Y. Acad. Sci. 18, 427 (1956).
CAUTION: Can cause severe allergic dermatitis.
Therap-Cat: Extract as antiallergic (hyposensitization therapy). |