Saturday, October 24, 2009

Trying to Solve Some Mysteries

I'm trying to figure out what this vine is with the pointy leaves. When I originally saw it I thought just my luck poison ivy to go with the poison oak, but it is too delicate and pretty to be poison ivy. I did my white paper test on it. Urushiol oil (the stuff that makes humans itch) turns black on white printer paper within an hour or so off rubbing a leave on it. I tested our poison oak and yep it turned black pretty quickly. The stuff below stayed green 24 hours. I described the vine to the natural gardener people and they said it could possibly be peppervine or a type of clematis. I'm thinking peppervine, though I can't find a picture of peppervine that looks quite like this. I did read that peppervine is often mistaken for poison ivy/oak. It's mature berries turn dark bluish-black though they start out green then turn white then red. So as soon as this vine berries baby I will have better idea of what it actually is. It is surrounded by carolina snailseed (the vine with the little red berries).

Check out how different the poison oak looks even small on the right side of the picture versus the tiny vine that I mistook for poison ivy that is growing right under the fence and along it. On the lower left is snapdragon vine. Poison oak and poison ivy look pretty similar, have hardy looking leaves that bruise easily the better to cover you in itch causing sap and change colors with the seasons. They can turn red or yellow in early fall while other plants are still green. The ones in the picture below was a darker green and is fading out, other leaflets of poison oak in the yard have a red tinge right now. The more pictures I see of poison ivy and oak and the more I come across it in nature. I can see why people who are not allergic have actually taken cuttings and planted it in their yards. It only causes contact dermatitis symptoms in humans. Birds (especially catbirds, grosbeak, and robins) eat the berries especially when their is not much else to eat during fall migration to southern Mexico. Poison Ivy has white berries. Poison Oak has yellow berries. They lose their leaves in the fall. And after all the reading tonight, I'm pretty confident that I only have poison oak in one corner of the yard and not all along the back fence.
I showed picture to my chiropractor and she thinks these plants may be cabbages which would explain why the cabbage caterpillars love them. It makes sense. I had narrowed it down to cabbage or cauliflower, but I have a cauliflower transplant and it looks a lot like the broccoli transplant, but smaller.

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