Autumn is progressing quite rapidly here in eastern Nebraska. Nearly all the leaves have fallen from our river birches, about half from our glorious sycamores, and the giant oak and maple have started to contribute mightily to the lovely lawn adornment. Another plant that produces leaves that I love to follow as they mature is the ivy. This set of three stems
is growing on our favorite river birch. I made the photo just three days ago and, when I checked back yesterday, the strand in the middle had lost all of its yellow leaves.
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It’s a lovely photo, especially with the differently colored vines. Very autumnal.
The middle vine looks like poison ivy to me. If it isn’t (and I’m sure you’d know if it were, and not allow it to be there) how can you tell the difference between it and poison ivy? There seems to be a goodly number of vines and shrubs with three leaves, as well as similar leaf shapes and placement on the stem. I think I need to find someone who knows where there’s some poison ivy living, so they can point it out in real life. It might not be so confusing, then.
Of course more than academic interest is involved here. I brought home a nice case of poison ivy from my travels, and I’d prefer to avoid it in the future. Since i don’t have a clue where I picked it up, I missed that opportunity to ID it. :-)
I’m happy that you like it, Linda! Poison ivy leaves are much more even and the leaves have a slight-to-pronounced shine. Here’s a link to a website that provides very good information on how to identify it; the three photos of PI in spring, summer, and fall are particularly informative: http://www.poison-ivy.org/identify-poison-ivy-poison-oak. It grows in many places around our MN woods and it’s important to be able to recognize it immediately. I once spent a couple of hours grooming a new trail through the woods on my knees with a machete, in a pair of old jeans with torn knees, and learned very well!
Ah. The shine comes from the oil, perhaps?
Very likely. I’ve never actually rubbed one between my fingers to see how oily it was, though.
Lovely!
Yes, they were. They’ve all mostly faded now. It’s going too fast…