Poison Ivy
Many-a-times has a wanker bitched and moaned about ‘Poison Ivy’ (although I think it was usually crabs by the way (and where) they were scratching, but I won’t go there). Anyhow, the following information is to help those who do enjoy hashing, but not the painful and aggravating cases of Poison Ivy, Poison Oak, or Poison Sumac that can follow.
FIRST OF ALL, WHAT ARE WE TALKING ABOUT?
| Poison Ivy is commonly seen as a small bushy, rather hardy shrub with three leaves. It also has a vine form and is observed as the ‘hairy’ vine growing up many a trees we hash right on by. However, to have a definitive picture of PI isn’t possible; it has many appearances. To the right is PI’s most common appearance, however, it can look slightly different depending on how much you’ve had to drink at the beer check. Notice that PI grows abundantly throughout most of the United States. |  |
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Poison Oak is much less common is the BAH3 hashing territory, but if you’re really gifted, you probably can find some. It really for the most part looks much like PI, but the leaves (again in the ‘leaves of three’) look like miniature oak leaves (for those of you who don’t know what it or an Oak leaf looks like, view the picture to the left). Poison Oak causes a contact dermatitis just like PI does. Notice that the northern accepted boundary of Poison Oak is our hash area, thus making it more scarce then PI, but still, if’n you’re real good, you can find it. | ||
| Poison Sumac is a shrub or bush with two rows of 7 – 13 leaflets; most common in the peat bogs of the Northern United States and in swampy Southern regions of the country. Although the map to the right shows it isn’t really in our area, it can be found by the most gifted (or unlucky) hashers. Don’t be fooled, it is in our area. I have seen it, but it is very, very, very uncommon. It looks extremely similar to regular sumac which is abundant in our area (but does not cause contact dermatitis). To identify Poison Sumac, look for the fruit that grows between the leaf and the branch. Nonpoisonous sumac has fruit growing from the ends of it’s branches (was that too much information?). Needless to say, don’t play with any plant to determine if it was really poison sumac or common sumac, unless you just really have no life and need something to bitch about |  |
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