Rukavina's Extreme Weather and Climate Blog

Poison ivy creates a lot of headaches this time of year for gardeners and landscapers as it spreads and can even become invasive. It can be tricky sometimes to identify poison ivy from other vines in our backyard. Here is a short video I made in the wooded area near the station to help you quickly identify a sticky situation and protect yourself from weeks of itching.  Here are the 3 main tips I cover in the video: 1. Poison ivy has 3 leaves, never more 2. Poison ivy grows shoots offset side to side, not side by side 3. Poison ivy never has thorns In our ever-changing climate, plants and organisms will adapt and change to live/survive in future environment types. Poison ivy has long been an irritant and may get worse if our climate continues to warm (human induced or not).  From Climate Central: "A 2007 study by Lewis Ziska , a plant physiologist at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, supports this concept. His study exposed poison ivy pl...