Sorry, couldn’t think of a slate pun for the title. The owner of the farm where our goats live wanted signs for the goat’s pen and the chicken coop, for the kids who visit the farm (riding camp and daily visitors). I decided I would work on the goat one first. Since the whole place has a nice natural vibe, we decided slate (after he saw my slate place cards) would make a nice look. So on Amazon I found a large 12x16" slate board.
My sister (oldest of 5) would break out from it by looking at it…and would scream that what I was rolling around in was the devil weed but never affected me. Wish it worked that way with some in-laws…
I’ve never had it (or poison sumac, or poison oak: think they all share the same chemical reaction, urishiol) and I’m pretty sure that I should have had it at some point, considering my childhood and adult experiences of being in the outdoors.
The really rough case is fortunately very freeze sensitive but where it is found it is extremely treacherous with its very pretty generic shiny green leaves, many folk did it up to plant in their gardens before discovering it is reported to be a thousand times as potent as Poison Ivy. The clear sap quickly dries to black and that is the only certain distinguishing feature aside from the crazy skin reactions, and while the slightest damage reveals the black sap, very young plants may not show that yet.
Me either, but I’m more careful since becoming a nurse and finding out that repeated exposure can actually MAKE you allergic. (Allergies work backwards from immunity, unfortunately.) As a teen I used to make bouquets of poison ivy to tease my friends who were allergic. My mom, on the other hand, breaks out if she’s near smoke from a fire with poison ivy in it.
