Poison Ivy in Fall

Since starting this blog in January, I have posted nearly 200 times.  Out of all of those posts, the one that has been viewed the most times is one about poison ivy "Leaves of three, let it be... What about leaves of five?".  There were so many people searching for information about poison ivy that I wrote a second post in June -

"Leaves of Three... Revisited". There are still people searching for information on poison ivy nearly every day.

Today I was at Chipp-A-Waters Park in Mt Pleasant to look for fall leaves and fruits.  Less than 25 foot from the trail I found these berries hanging from a tree.

Those white-green berries belong to Eastern Poison Ivy (Toxicodendron radicans).  Several of these plants were using their hairy clinging vines to climb an Eastern Cottonwood (Populus deltoides).  Branches that were over 3 foot long were jutting out from the vines, giving the Poison Ivy the appearance of a tree rather than a vine.  With branches like this, it can be hard to tell the Poison Ivy from the tree it is climbing.

Eastern Poison Ivy (Toxicodendron radicans) vines climbing a Cottonwood Tree

Branches sprouting from Eastern Posion Ivy (Toxicodendron radicans) vines

Eastern Poison Ivy (Toxicodendron radicans)- note the green-white berries and "leaves of three"

The green-white berries and "hairy" vines can be used to identify Eastern Poison Ivy even when no leaves are present