Poison ivy and the native plants that look like it
How to know poison ivy by its leaves, vine and berries, how to tell it from the natives mistaken for it, what it feeds, and how to clear it from a tree safely.
On this page
How to know poison ivyWhat it gives wildlifeThe natives mistaken for itIts two poisonous relativesHandling it without a rashGetting it off a tree you want to keepPlanting where it grewCommon questionsSourcesPoison ivy carries three leaflets to a leaf, and the middle leaflet stands on a longer stalk than the two beside it. Its berries are white and waxy, and a vine climbing a tree looks hairy with roots. Fragrant sumac, boxelder seedlings and Virginia creeper are the natives often taken for it, and each has a tell of its own. Its oil clings to tools, clothing and a dog’s coat, and burning the plant puts the oil in the smoke.
How to know poison ivy
“Leaves of three, let it be” still holds. The leaves alternate along the stem, never in pairs, and each splits into three leaflets. The middle leaflet’s stalk runs ½ to 1¾ inches, longer than the stalks of the two side leaflets, whose halves are uneven.
Leaflet edges may be smooth, wavy, toothed or lobed, and the surface glossy or dull. New leaves come out reddish in spring, turn green in summer and go red, orange or yellow in fall.
It grows three ways: as a trailing ground cover, as a shrub 2 to 6 feet tall, or as a vine that climbs as high as 60 feet into a tree. On a trunk, the vine’s brown stem is so covered in anchoring rootlets that it looks hairy.
Male and female flowers grow on separate plants, so only some plants bear fruit. The small greenish white flowers open in May and June. The berries ripen from August into November, creamy white, waxy and about ¼ inch across, and hang on into winter.
What it gives wildlife
Poison ivy is a native, and a useful one. Its berries are a popular and important food for songbirds in fall migration and in winter, when other food is scarce. Deer and small mammals browse its leaves, twigs and berries, and birds spread its seed in their droppings.
“Unlike humans, many wildlife species are not allergic to poison ivy. Many birds rely on the poison ivy berries for food in fall and winter.” (Penn State Extension, Virginia Creeper and Poison Ivy Identification with Control)
Manage it where it is likely to touch people or pets, and leave it where it is not.
The natives mistaken for it
The Missouri Department of Conservation names three common plants often mistaken for poison ivy: fragrant sumac, boxelder and Virginia creeper. Each of these carries three leaflets, or seems to at a glance, and one clue tells each apart:
| Look-alike | How to tell it from poison ivy |
|---|---|
| Fragrant sumac | The end leaflet has no stalk of its own, and the berries are red and fuzzy |
| Boxelder seedling | Leaves in pairs, opposite on the stem, with three to seven leaflets |
| Virginia creeper | Five leaflets and blue berries, though a seedling may show only three |
| Raspberry and blackberry | Spiny stems |
| Virgin’s bower | Leaves in pairs, the side leaflets on obvious stalks |
| Hog peanut | Leaflets without teeth or lobes, on a weak stem |
| Wild strawberry and jack-in-the-pulpit | No stalk on any of the three leaflets |
Fragrant sumac is the look-alike gardeners plant on purpose. It is a low, thicket-forming shrub 2 to 6 feet tall, and harmless. Its yellowish flowers open before the leaves, from March to May, and female plants ripen fuzzy red fruit from June to August.
Boxelder, a common native maple we do not grow, carries three leaflets on some of its leaves. Its leaves stand in pairs, opposite each other on the stem, where poison ivy’s alternate.
Virginia creeper climbs the same trees and turns red in the same weeks of fall. It holds on with tendrils tipped by sticky discs rather than hairy roots, and its berries are dark blue.
Its two poisonous relatives
Two close relatives carry the same oil. Poison sumac is a shrub or small tree of swamps and bogs, up to 25 feet tall, with 7 to 13 smooth-edged leaflets on reddish stalks and white berries. Staghorn sumac, which we grow, has red fruit and colonizes dry banks, gravel and road cuts.
Atlantic poison oak is a low shrub of dry, sandy or rocky ground that never climbs and grows no aerial roots. Its three leaflets are lobed like small oak leaves and hairy on both sides, and its fruit is finely hairy too.
Handling it without a rash
Every part of the plant carries urushiol, the oil behind the rash, and the roots most of all. A dead plant stays poisonous for several years. The oil rides on tools, clothing, shoes and a pet’s fur, and stays active on them for months, and sometimes for years, until washed off.
Wear gloves, long sleeves, long pants and boots to clear it. Wash the clothes in hot water apart from the family laundry, and clean tools with soap and water, then rubbing alcohol. Bathe a dog that ran through it with a pet shampoo. Never run a string trimmer through it, since the trimming spreads the oil onto clothes and skin.
Never burn it either:
“Never burn poison ivy, as the vaporized oil that is produced can cause severe systemic allergic reactions if inhaled.” (Wisconsin Horticulture, Poison Ivy)
Bag the plants for the trash, and keep them out of the compost.
Getting it off a tree you want to keep
Pull seedlings and small plants after rain has loosened the soil, with a hand inside a plastic bag, then pull the bag over the plant. Cut larger patches to the ground again and again, or treat them with an herbicide.
For a vine climbing a tree, cut a 4-inch section out of the stem near the ground, much as for an invasive vine, and paint herbicide on the fresh cut. Leave the top to die, and remove it carefully later, since dead poison ivy still causes a rash. Never spray the leaves of a vine growing in a tree, because the herbicide can injure the tree too. Products with glyphosate or triclopyr control it when used as the label directs.
Planting where it grew
Once a patch is cleared, spread 4 to 6 inches of clean wood chips over the ground, so no one touches oil left in the soil. Then plant a native that holds the ground.
Blue Whale Trees grows fragrant sumac from seed, a low shrub for a sunny slope too dry and rocky for grass, whose leaves of three are harmless. It is one of our native shrubs, and the tree finder lists the others for dry, sunny ground by zone.
Common questions
How do you tell poison ivy from Virginia creeper?
Count the leaflets: poison ivy has three and Virginia creeper five, though a creeper seedling may show three. Creeper climbs by tendrils with sticky discs and bears blue berries, where poison ivy climbs by hairy roots and bears white ones.
Is fragrant sumac poisonous?
No, fragrant sumac is harmless. Its end leaflet has no stalk of its own, and its berries are red and fuzzy, where poison ivy’s are white and smooth.
Does boxelder look like poison ivy?
Its seedlings do, with leaves of three. Boxelder’s leaves grow in pairs, opposite each other on the stem, while poison ivy’s alternate.
Is it safe to burn poison ivy?
No: burning puts the oil into the smoke, and people who breathe it can need a hospital. Bag the plants for the trash instead.
Sources
(7 references)
- Poison Ivy: Missouri Department of Conservation field guide, with its Virginia Creeper and Box Elder pages: alternate leaves of three leaflets, the end leaflet’s stalk of ½ to 1¾ inches longer than the side stalks, side leaflets with unequal sides, reddish spring leaves and red, orange or yellow fall color, flowers in May and June, creamy white waxy berries about ¼ inch across from August to November, fragrant sumac, boxelder and Virginia creeper as the common plants mistaken for it, boxelder’s leaves in threes and its other name, ashleaf maple, poison oak and poison sumac, berries for songbirds in fall migration and winter, browsing deer and small mammals, birds spreading the seed, the smoke of burning plants, and Virginia creeper turning red at the same time.
- Virginia Creeper and Poison Ivy Identification with Control: Penn State Extension (Mary Alice Koeneke): the quotation, Virginia creeper’s five leaflets, tendrils with adhesive discs and dark blue berries, poison ivy as a vine, shrub or ground cover with hairy aerial roots, glossy or dull leaves, urushiol in every part and most in the roots, the oil carried on fur, tools, clothing and shoes, clothes washed in hot water and tools cleaned with soap, water and alcohol, no motorized trimmer, no burning, no compost, and pulling small plants with a bagged hand after rain.
- How to Identify and Control Poison Ivy (Toxicodendron radicans): Clemson Cooperative Extension, Home & Garden Information Center: leaflet edges smooth, wavy, lobed or toothed, vines hairy with anchoring rootlets, Atlantic poison oak with hairs on both leaf surfaces, the oil active on tools, clothing and pet fur for months, laundry kept separate, rubbing alcohol as a solvent, and plants cut back to the ground again and again.
- Poison ivy: The Morton Arboretum, with its page Poison ivy control: a vine over 60 feet long or a shrub 2 to 6 feet tall, brown old stems with aerial rootlets, male and female flowers on separate plants, the 4-inch section cut from a vine on a tree and the cut painted, the top left to die and removed later, and dead plants that still cause a rash.
- Poison Ivy: Wisconsin Horticulture, University of Wisconsin-Madison Division of Extension (Vijai Pandian, Mark Renz and Anne Pearce, revised 2026): the table of look-alikes with boxelder seedlings, raspberry and blackberry, virgin’s bower, hog peanut, wild strawberry and jack-in-the-pulpit, urushiol active in dead plants for years, pets bathed with a pet shampoo, the quotation, no foliar spray on a vine in a tree, stems cut near the soil and painted, glyphosate and triclopyr, and 4 to 6 inches of wood chips over a cleared site.
- Poisonous Plants: CDC, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health: the oil active on the surface of objects for up to five years, tools cleaned with rubbing alcohol or soap and water, exposed clothing washed separately.
- Toxicodendron vernix: NC State Extension, North Carolina Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox, with its page Toxicodendron pubescens: poison sumac in bogs, marshes and swamps, to 25 feet, with 7 to 13 leaflets with smooth edges on red stalks and white fruit, and Atlantic poison oak as a low erect shrub of dry, sandy ground with oak-like leaflets and hairy stems, leaves and fruit.
