Up here in New England poison ivy is very much giving up and fading away.

It is one of the first plants to come out in spring, and one of the first to show fall color, but also one of the first to give up and drop leaves in the fall.

Keep in mind that thefading-poison-ivyplant manages to pull most of the plant sap – and nasty urushiol oil – out of the leave and back into the vine before the leaves fall. Which means the leaves are somewhat less troublesome when they are faded like this… but the vine is worse! It has extra sap and rash-inducing urushiol for the whole winter, until next spring when leaves sprout and they take back some of the stored oils.