News to me!

After 76 years of life and 25 years of poison ivy info-sifting I have learn a whole new thing: THERE IS POISON IVY IN JAPAN!

Also in Taiwan, and probably some in China and nearby countries.

This startling fact was revealed today at an online meeting of poison ivy freaks; people who study the plant and people who remove it for a living.

The kind of poison ivy that lives in Japan is Toxicodendron orientale which is very similar to Eastern poison ivy, but not too much like California’s Pacific poison oak, which is closer by far to Japan.

It seems that the Japanese variety tends not to grow at forest edges as our American type does; rather it grows deep in forests. 

It doesn’t have the red hairy roots that American poison ivy uses to attach to trees and walls; it has some rootlike growth at times to attach to trees, but not the huge red clumps of hair we see in the. US.

By all means, if you are interested, go to iNaturalist to learn more, and see the surprisingly small Wikipedia article.

It does not seem to cause the widespread skin problems that it causes in the US, probably because it is not that common and does not grow on the edges of forests where people might run afoul of it.

But wait, there’s more: there is a tree in Japan that also contains the urushiol oil that all forms of poison ivy, oak, and sumac contain. It is called the Japanese Lacquer Tree and it is widely used to make lacquer for decorative items.

So far we have never heard of anyone using the urushiol oil from our poison ivy, oak, and sumac for craft purposes, though perhaps Native Americans might have.

Wikipedia has lots of info about the use of such lacquer in Japan and China.