Summertime comes with all sorts of natural wonders: Cheery Sunflowers, delicious Wild Raspberries, newly-fledged baby birds, heavenly prairie wildflowers, buzzing bumblebees... and Poison... Ivy?

Poison Ivy doesn't make our animal brothers and sisters itchy... in fact, some critters depend on it for food! Honestly, in this way it's almost like a guardian of the forest! Unfortunately it does this job a little too well, keeping families away from the magic of the woods. On one of the first nature adventures I led in the woods, I watched as a well-meaning mom warned her child to tuck his arms in and "don't touch anything... it's ALL Poison Ivy!". The kiddo then fearfully hugged himself and walked the path, looking at every green plant as a monster.

While yes, there ARE plants to stay away from... I assure you that they are NOT all Poison Ivy! Below you'll find some great tips for identifying Poison Ivy:

“Leaves of 3”

Yes, we've all heard "leaves of 3, let it be"... and while this is true that Poison Ivy has groupings of 3 leaves... so do a lot of other plants! See pics below: (L-R) Wild Raspberries, Wild Strawberries, Maple seedlings and more... so let's keep going.

“Mitten thumbs”

I often tell my students to look for the "mitten thumbs" on each side-leaf. See the pic below:

“Hairy vine”

Another helpful rhyme: "Hairy vine, warning sign". This one's great because Poison Ivy can make you itchy even when there are no leaves! You'll find densely-hairy looking vines on fallen logs or climbing up trees. Don't touch!

The Many Colors of Poison Ivy

I was originally going to title this subsection "colors of the painbow" but I figured that was a bit much. So, as the above title suggests: Poison Ivy can come in many shades of green and even red! See some examples below:

Does that seem like too much to remember? If so, here's a a trick: make Poison Ivy Safety Necklaces! Print off a pic (or a few) of Poison Ivy, laminate (optional) and hole-punch them to make a necklace. Next time you're in the woods with your kiddos, give them each a necklace and let them be the "Safety Guides", whose jobs are to find and point out Poison Ivy (using their necklace for reference). In my experience, the appointed Safety Guides get really into this and they'll firmly imprint Poison Ivy into their brains! Yay!

What to do if you touch Poison Ivy

Now, let's say you're out in the woods, you see something cool... you bend down to pick it up and... oh no! You've brushed Poison Ivy with your bare arm! What do you do???

If possible:

1. Find a restroom and wash/scrub the area with soap and water immediately. Tradition says you should do this within about 20 minutes.

2. Immediately use Tecnu scrub

3. Find some Jewelweed!

Funnily enough, the natural cure to Poison Ivy rash sometimes grows right next to it!

The top plant with bumpy edges is Jewelweed, the bottom plant with “mitten thumbs” is…? I bet you know!

Jewelweed is an all around awesome Ohio-native plant... it sparkles in the dew/rain (hence "Jewel"), it's super-fun-looking flowers bring bumblebees and hummingbirds like crazy, the seed pods are a blast to "pop", AND it's leaves and stems are medicinal. What's not to love?!

As soon as you know you've touched some Poison Ivy, look for Jewelweed. Grab some leaves/stems from the plant and squish them all up until they're nice and juicy, then generously apply to the Poison Ivy'd area and... ta-da! No rash! Yay nature!

So there you go! Hopefully this info will help you and yours be more confident in the great outdoors! Let's not let 3 little leaves keep you from enjoying all that our beautiful state has to offer!