[MAIPC] T. radicans

[Rod Simmons]

Hi Susan,

Poison Ivy (Toxicodendron radicals) is not a noxious invasive vine per se, such a designation is typically applied to non-native invasive plants.

Poison Ivy, as you know, is often a weedy native - opportunistically spreading via birds to upland forested habitats where the soils were significantly disturbed.

Its typical habitat is alluvial floodplain forests, bottomland forests, and swamp forests.  It is one of the most important native species for wildlife in the Eastern Deciduous Forest.

Like native grapes (Vitis spp.) and other native vines, it has co-evolved with native canopy trees and wildlife over millennia, and exists in equilibrium with such trees and does not smother and kill trees as non-native invasive vines do.

Moreover, large, old-age Poison Ivy vines (unlike native grape) will naturally decay and crumble off the trunks of the trees and regenerate again from the roots.

Only non-native invasive vines destroy trees and other vegetation and wildlife, both in the long and short terms.

All the best,

Rod


On Apr 6, 2020, at 9:36 AM, Susan Gitlin <susan.mclaughlin at alumni.stanford.edu<mailto: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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