[MAIPC] T. radicans

[MARGARET L CHATHAM]

I think your informant is mistaken. Poison ivy can coexist without harm to the trees it climbs for ages: it is deciduous, so it doesn’t create a winter wind flag like English ivy to blow trees down; it tends to grow just one vine up a trunk and then branch widely, unlike English ivy again, which often blankets a trunk with vines, holding in moisture & rotting the bark under it; it grows within the canopy, doesn’t take it over like oriental bittersweet or porcelainberry. All in all, a good forest citizen, just not for us when we touch it.

Margaret

> On Apr 6, 2020, at 9:35 AM, Susan Gitlin <susan.mclaughlin at alumni.stanford.edu> wrote:
> 
> Hello, folks.
> 
> I know that poison ivy is a noxious weed, but I believed that was because of harm to human health.  I was not aware that it behaved as an invasive vine, smothering trees a la English ivy.  That would not make sense to me, except in rare cases, because in that case our local ecosystems would have far fewer trees.  
> 
> However, someone today told me that poison ivy smothers and kills trees.  Has this always been the case, or is it now happening due to increased carbon dioxide in the air?  If the latter, is climate change converting our native plants into plants that cause ecological harm?
> 
> If you could share your knowledge on this, I'd appreciate it.
> 
> Thank you!
> 
> --Susan
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