Leon Fisk wrote:
On Tue, 18 Jul 2006 01:06:29 GMT, fran
wrote:


snipped
Call me skeptical, I'd want to see it myself to be sure

A few years back I wanted to start removing the poison ivy from a wooded
portion of my yard, so I began to research it. I found a lot of great
info on the Net. One of the things I discovered was that although
poison ivy normally has 3 leaves (or leaflets) it can also have 5 or
more. The following FDA link states the same.
http://www.fda.gov/fdac/features/796_ivy.html

Last week I was pulling (yes, pulling...I'm careful and only mildly
allergic to urushiol) some poison ivy from another wooded area and found
a vine with both 3 and 5 leaflet clusters on the same vine. It was a
first for me.

Two interesting Internet factoids about poison ivy :

* As the urushiol penetrates your skin, your body sees it as an
invader (allergy) even though it is harmless. Your immune system
kicks in and begins a complex series of events which result in the
inflammation. So, technically the rash is the effect of your
immune system overreacting.
http://www.bio.umass.edu/immunology/poisoniv.htm
* It seems the British (during American colonization) became so
enamored with the plant that it was brought to England to plant
along hedge rows...where of course it spread...and then was
subsequently introduced into Australia and New Zealand where the
plants act as a garden backdrop...still can't figure out why
someone would do that