I’ve honestly never run across poison ivy in Alberta, but stinging nettle is everywhere around sloughs and beaver dams. It likes damp soil and shaded areas, and grows about waist high with fuzzy leaves and long narrow seed tassels as it matures. I’m sure Google will have plenty of pictures.
The worst I’ve ever had was when, as a kid in about grade three, a bunch of us hid in a patch of it while playing ‘hide and seek’ at noon hour. Made for a miserable afternoon in class with an unsympathetic old nun for a teacher. Calamine lotion is the traditional aid.
I was always under the impression that true poison ivy was a climbing vine; I’ve seen plenty of that stuff in the southern U.S.
|