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The Kind of Misery Itched in Memory
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"Three weeks," she said. "It took me three weeks to get over it. The rash got infected -- I can send you pictures."
Thank you, but we have our own.
Each year, 350,000 cases of poison ivy occur in the country. According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, once contact has occurred, redness and swelling appear in 12 to 48 hours. Blisters and itching follow.
The most well-known poison ivy-global warming study, by Duke University and the USDA, said the "current increase in global atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations bears consequences for human health on a panoptic scale."
In other words, things could get far worse for the 85 percent of the population that is allergic to urushiol, the sap secreted by poison ivy and its close cousins, poison oak and sumac. (Poison ivy is also related to cashews and mangoes. Some folks who come in contact with a mango's skin get a similar, poison-ivy-like reaction).
"You want to see poison ivy? C'mon over -- I'll show you poison ivy," says Carole Bergmann, a forest ecologist with the Montgomery County parks system.
She wasn't kidding.
She pointed to a few innocent-looking green sprouts mixed in with the grass, not more than 200 feet from the back door of her office at Wheaton Regional Park. Hrrumph. Hardly a threat.
"Now look up," she said.
That's when things got scary. A tangle of poison ivy vines had practically swallowed a tulip poplar tree. If that wasn't enough, a four-inch-thick gray-and-brown rope ran up the tree's trunk. Poison ivy roots. Eww.
Bergmann has not done any controlled studies; she knows only what she sees. And what she sees is poison ivy. A LOT of poison ivy.
"I really do think that vines are growing a heck of a lot more crazily than they were 20 years ago," Bergmann said as she continued the tour. "And this year with all the rain -- well, everything loves the rain. Just walking around, I've seen very healthy colonies of poison ivy."
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