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Is This Poison Ivy?

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Submitted by:  Bill Egeln
Date Submitted: 05/14/03
Location: Charlotte, NC

Question Asked: I recently moved into a new house outside Charlotte, NC. The yard has been unkept for years, so I have been doing a lot of cleaning up. This weekend I caught a bad case of poison ivy. I haven't had it for probaly 25 years and i forgot how miserable it can be. Anyway, now I am paranoid. I am submitting several pics for your review. I just want to be sure before I start weeding some more. Also, if it is one of the poison cousins, do you have any tips as to how to get rid of it without killing the other plants? Thanks.

Answer: Ok - last set here. I see at least 2 different plants here (I think - the angle is tough). The upper one flat on the ground could be poison ivy but I don't have enough details for a positive id. The foreground plant does not look like poison ivy based on what I see. On the second picture, I don't see the stem or some key details but I'm betting that its not poison sumac. Poison sumac likes wet conditions (swamps, roadside drainage ditches, etc.). This could be a sumac relative (like smooth sumac). Probably just a willful volunteer - tree or shrub. There are a number of shrubs with compound leaves like this in the picture.