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You are here >1Up Info > Wildlife, Animals, and Plants > Plant Species > Shrub > Species: Toxicodendron radicans | Poison-Ivy
 

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BOTANICAL AND ECOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS

SPECIES: Toxicodendron radicans | Poison-Ivy
GENERAL BOTANICAL CHARACTERISTICS : Poison-ivy is a native dioecious shrub, subshrub, or woody vine with various growth forms: dwarf, erect, decumbent, or high climbing [70]. It grows from 1.6 to 6.6 feet (0.5 to 2 m) high [70,109]. The trunk can grow to 5.9 inches (15 cm) in diameter [70]. Adventitious roots allow poison-ivy vines to grow to 150 feet (45.7 m) in length [22,70]. Rhizomes may be at the surface or deep in the soil [70]. Leaves are three-foliate and deciduous [79]. Flowers are in axillary panicles. The fruit is a dry, round drupe [109]. RAUNKIAER LIFE FORM : Chamaephyte Geophyte Hemicryptophyte REGENERATION PROCESSES : Poison-ivy reproduces vegetatively and sexually [70]. It sprouts from aboveground vines, rhizomes, and root crowns [70]. Plants take 3 years from seed to reach the flowering stage [39]. Artigas and Boerner [9] found 11 plus or minus 7 seeds per square foot (116.8 plus or minus 75.2 germinable seeds/sq. m) in mineral soil to a depth of 4 inches (10 cm) in a 20- to 60-year-old white and red pine (Pinus strobus and P. resinosa) plantation. Seeds have an oily covering and are primarily dispersed by animals [79,88]. Since the covering is buoyant, the fruit is also dispersed by waterways [79]. Poison-ivy seeds that had passed through sharp-tailed grouse digestive tracts gave good to excellent germination after both warm (86 degrees Fahrenheit [30 deg C]) and cold (68 degrees Fahrenheit [20 deg C]) stratification [64]. Seeds regurgitated by a crow exhibited 90 percent germination [79]. SITE CHARACTERISTICS : Poison-ivy grows in semiarid to humid regions [51,118,122]. One exception is maritime areas where it grows in a perhumid climate with localized fog [81,91]. Climate is typically continental, with short, warm to hot summers and long, cold to cool winters [51,62]. Average growing season ranges from about 150 days at its northern limit in Quebec to 240 days in the south in Florida [54,62]. Minimum temperature averages 41.6 degrees Fahrenheit (5.3 deg C) in the north and a maximum average of 66.2 degrees Fahrenheit (19 deg C) in the west [54,128]. Annual precipitation averages from a minimum of 15.4 inches (391 mm) in the northern part of its range and 18.3 inches (465 mm) in the western part to a maximum of 57 inches (1,450 mm) at the southern limit [35,48,51]. Snowfall averages between 12 and 74 inches (30.5-188 cm) over most of its range [51]. Poison-ivy occurs in a large variety of soil conditions. Soil textures may be poorly drained clays with gleying and mottling present [34,38,44,98]. Soils also may be well-drained silty loams to loamy sands [46,81,105,116,122]. Under loblolly pine (Pinus taeda) on well-drained sites, poison-ivy had an average cover of 1.4 percent; poison-ivy cover decreased to a trace in poorly drained swales of Chinese tallowtree (Sapium sebiferum) [49]. In green ash-hickory stands, poison-ivy seedlings were of higher importance (49.16) on silt loam soil compared to 7.65 importance rating on silty clay soil [43]. Soil pH varies from acidic (pH 6.0) to moderately alkaline (pH 7.9) [24,35]. Topography is flatland to rolling hills [33,56,116]. Poison-ivy also occurs on steeper slopes in the southwestern states [71]. Upper elevation limits for poison-ivy growth are 7,080 feet (2,158 m) in New Mexico and 1,700 feet (518 m) in Tennessee [35,94]. Poison-ivy is found under all moisture conditions. It was the most widely distributed species along a moisture gradient in central Illinois [1]. Poison-ivy occurs most frequently on moist, open sites [71,113]. However, Archambault and others [8] noted that poison-ivy was most characteristic of dry, open sites in Michigan. Poison-ivy is an important species in swamps and is mostly restricted to mixed swamps in Florida, not extending into bayheads [82]. It is tolerant of brackish or mildly saline water [12]. Poison-ivy can survive inundation and fluctuations in water levels (e.g., in cypress (Taxodium spp.) swamps or cabbage palmetto (Sabal palmetto) communities) because of adventitious roots along the climbing vine [118]. Seasonally flooded areas often are more alkaline because decaying plant material is washed away; poision-ivy grows better in these sites [82,83]. Poison-ivy decreased in importance with an increase in flooding depth [83]. There was no difference in poison-ivy cover between a young oxbow marsh area (inundated at some point during the year) and a mid-age oxbow. Poison-ivy was not present on the oldest oxbow, located above the floodplain [53]. Poison-ivy occurs on a large variety of sites. It is found in riparian communities, gallery forests, open dry or wet woods, and hillsides [100,121]. It occurs on sand dunes of lake shores and barrier islands [10,75,92,128]. Poison-ivy roots on the bases of cypress (Taxodium distichum) in large peat mats [23,25,83,102]. It is also found on hammocks [4,62]. Poison-ivy is common in disturbed places, such as roadside thickets, stone walls, fences, railroads, clearcuts, and orchards [18,59,104,111]. It also occurs in urban settings. Poison-ivy was 1 of 10 species most important (42.4 percent frequency) in an herbaceous layer in the Bronx, New York [127]. Common overstory associates of poison-ivy not included in Distribution and Occurrence are bur oak-aspen (Populus tremuloides), green ash, American elm, Florida torrey (Torreya taxifolia), southern red oak (Quercus falcata), and blackgum (Nyssa sylvatica) [17,73,87,107,121]. Additionally, poison-ivy occurs with sycamore (Platanus wrightii), boxelder (Acer negundo), wax myrtle (Myrica cerifera), and redbay (Persea borbonia) [16,25,82,92, 117]. Common understory shrub associates are skunkbush (Rhus trilobata), snowberry (Symphoricarpos occidentalis), common chokecherry (Prunus virginiana), blackberries (Rubus spp.), trumpetcreeper (Campsis radicans), and sweet fern (Comptonia peregrina) [34,37,94,107,125,128]. Associated vines are greenbrier (Smilax spp.), grapes (Vitis spp.), and Virginia creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia) [57,93]. Other species found with poison-ivy are broomsedge bluestem (Andropogon virginicus, heartleaf foamflower (Tiarella cordifolia), sweet spire (Itea virginiana), brackenfern (Pteridium aquilinum), and lizardtail (Saururus cernuus) [16,87,99,102,108,114]. SUCCESSIONAL STATUS : Facultative Seral Species Poison-ivy is a common intruder into ruderal sites in North America, while in Japan, it is a component of old growth [39]. Poison-ivy is an early competitor with other species that may become established in the overstory [88]. Cowles [19] classified poison-ivy as a primary dune colonizer, establishing before the xerophytic evergreen flora [19]. Poison-ivy is somewhat shade tolerant [67]. However, it was unable to compete with an introduced noxious species, Brazilian pepper-tree (Schinus terebinthifolius) in Florida pineland [74]. Poison-ivy occurs in subclimax associations of oak (Quercus spp.) and aspen in the Great Plains and in climax types of sugar maple-basswood (Acer saccharum-Tilia grandifolia) [14,21]. In sugar maple-basswood/prairie ecotone, poison-ivy occurred with a 3 percent frequency [65]. Poison-ivy occurs in late seral and climax communities. In secondary succession of old fields, poison-ivy was present in seral stages of 30- to 100-year-old stands (the pine stage with loblolly and shortleaf pines [Pinus echinata]) and in 150-year-old stands (the pine-hardwood stage with shortleaf pine, northern red oak [Quercus rubra], magnolia [Magnolia grandiflora], and American beech [Fagus grandifolia]) [89]. In another study, poison-ivy occurred in late seral stages of pine-hardwoods and in climax communities of magnolia and American beech [69]. Poison-ivy was present in climax white oak (Quercus alba)- American beech communities [91]. SEASONAL DEVELOPMENT : Poison-ivy flowers when the leaves are about half open [70]. It blooms May to July throughout its range [22,40,59,110]. Fruits mature from August through November [95,104,111]. Fruit may persist until the flowering next season [70,79]. Leaves are dropped after freezing temperatures in the fall.

Related categories for Species: Toxicodendron radicans | Poison-Ivy

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