NEWS & NOTES
The advantages of poison ivy (no really) What if I told you poison ivy has its advantages. No, really, it’s true. In many coastal regions, poison ivy serves as a protective barrier, helping to keep out unwanted visitors. Due to the fact that poison ivy can survive for a long time under the most extreme of environmental conditions, it is beneficial to protecting specific areas, i.e., fragile sand dunes. These plants also favor living at the cusp edge of the forest, helping to keep intruders at bay. Poison ivy does not require lots of fresh water nor as many nutrients as other plants do in order to survive. While it may pose itself as a nuisance plant to most humans, it has proven benefits advantageous to stabilizing specific fragile ecosystems. Toxicodendron species Poison ivy is an invasive native plant that exists living in North America. It is problematic as it causes itchy rashes from hell yet it significantly contributes to our food chain in other ways. Did you know that many animals actually feed off of its leaves, flowers and berries/seeds? That’s right, poison ivy berries are harmful if eaten by humans, but not for birds, chipmunks and rodents alike all love eating them. The poison ivy berries serve as the perfect nutritional food source for these forest critters especially during the winter months. Poison ivy berries/seeds
THEY SAID IT...
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The weed has been expanding to new regions in the state and its growth has become more aggressive. [It] can be found growing in fallow areas, fence rows, pastures, roadsides and creek sides.
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— Jeffrey S Graybill, education agronomist at Penn State Extension, on a recently found poisonous weed now spreading aggressively across Pennsylvania
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VEGETATION CONTROL
Issue 1, 2021