poison oak

Hi Genita~

We posted your question over on our Facebook page~ You have been getting responses over there from some very kind people.

http://www.facebook.com/poppyswap

I'm so sorry to hear about your son and poison oak. What a drag! I'd imagine enough time has passed now where you have taken him to your doctor or you are seeing an improvement. Did you try the tea tree? Did you see any improvements?

Good luck with your treatments for your son! Please let us know how it turned out~

Kristie

Genita,

I'm hoping the worst is over with your son's poison oak rash by now. I'm also very sensitive to this plant and have learned how to identify it even in winter.

Here's a brief description from the Winter Twig Identification Handbook compiled by Tobias Policha, 2006. (Thanks, my friend, once again!)

"Poison Oak Warning

One caution that should be taken by anyone who ventures out into the field, particularly at lower elevations in the Pacific Northwest, is an awareness of Poison Oak. Urushiol, the active compound that causes inflammatory, oozing rashes on contact with the skin is still active during the winter. This may be reason enough to learn to identify winter twigs. While Poison Oak is recognizable in leaf by its three leaflets, in the winter it can be a trickster.

Twigs: Grey - reddish; Densely fuzzy; Often climbing by aerial roots that project from the stems.

Leaf Scars: Alternate; Broadly U-shaped.

Buds: Naked; Exposed leaves, densely hairy.

Fruits: A panicle of dry fruits; Often persistent; Grey - white.

Know This Plant!"

I'm passing this on to you on behalf of your son and his cousin, hoping they will learn to avoid the suffering by knowing and respecting the plant. When I think I may have touched it, I always wash well with soap and water as soon as possible. The idea is to try to get the Urushiol off before it causes inflammation. I find the Marie's Original Poison Oak Soap helps alot to soothe/ease the itching and stop the rash from spreading if I do get a reaction. Here's the website, but it is also commonly available in local stores around here. http://www.poisonoaksoap.com/

For what it's worth,

Aline

Here in Maine we use Sweet Fern for poison ivy, oak, and sumac rashes. It's practically a miracle plant. Despite its name it's not a fern but a woody shrub w/fern like leaves that smell wonderfully, sweetly resiny. I tell people to make a very strong tea with the leaves and apply it with a compress. I also make it into a salve, but salve isn't appropriate for all rashes as you want to dry out the little blisters that form. The tea could be mixed with clay and applied to the rash. Sweet fern grows in poor sandy soil, in roadsides, forest edges, with white pines - which is where it grows on my property. You might be able to find some of the dried herb online, and it will work. If there was a way of uploading a picture from my computer's hard drive I would. But a google search will provide info and pics.

Great discussion east and west! I'll take this opportunity to welcome our new herbalist Susan, and thank her for mentioning a "miracle" herb I am unfamiliar with...would that be Comptonia peregrine? I'm inclined to like it from all that you said, and since my grandson's name is also Peregrine!

I would add that the key to posting images is the button to the left of the smiley face library in the toolbar of this reply pane. The image needs to exist on the web first, to give it a URL address, then the URL gets pasted in the dialog that comes up when you click on the image button.

I'll try to get a photo of the winter twig of Pacific Poison Oak, Toxicodendron diversilobum ... with a zoom lens and post it here.

Oh, and the image size needs to fit the column width, or it will be cut off (cropped) when published.

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