It’s growing right outside my house.
I want to pull it out, but it struck me that it might be poisonous. It looks kinda like the pictures of poison oak that popped up in the Google machine.
If it is poisonous, what do I do with it? Will a pair of thick gardening gloves be sufficient? Is there a way to prevent it from growing back?
Either way, it’s some kind of weed, and I want to be rid of it!
I’m not a botanist, but I’ll say NO, that is not poison oak or ivy or any of that. This is strictly based on the proverb “Leaves of three beware” or some such. There’s clearly five leaflets for each leaf and I’m almost positive that’s the only reason we can say it’s not poison oak/ivy/whatever.
It could be, but that leaf pattern isn’t quite what I’d expect with 5 leaves on a stem. Poison Oak isn’t as consistent in form as Poison Ivy. Anyway, just in case it is Poison Oak don’t touch it, not with gloves, not with anything. Spray brush killer on it. There’s nothing close by. In a couple of weeks it will be totally dead. Just let the remains rot. The brush killer will get into the root and it won’t come back. No reason to do anything different if it’s not the evil weed.
Nah. Leaves look too pointy to be poison oak. Poison oak (and oak) has a certain roundness about the tips.
In a pinch, just trickle a little gasoline on it (if you don’t have weed killer handy). It’ll die, and nothing will grow in that spot for a while.
100% - no.
It’s not always red and the shape of the leaf varies. Still doesn’t look like it, but there’s no need to take a chance.
Right off, that plant fails the “leaves of three” test. Not poison oak.
Great. Guess I better get some week killer!
Are you on the west coast now? If not, it’s not poison oak. It really doesn’t grow outside of California, Oregon and Washington in the US.
Oh. Nope, I’m in Michigan. :smack:
Pacific Poison Oak only grows in the Western USA …
Parts East have two fairly common species, Poison Ivy is the vine type and the other grows like Pacific Poison Oak. This other is sometimes called Poison Oak, just depends on local custom.
All these have three distinct leaves per stem … or more correctly three leaflets per petiolule …
The main point here is that the pictures shows leaves clearly different from any poisonous plant from this family. It’s not a real oak either, if I was a guessing kind of person (which I’m not), then I would guess something in the holly family.
It reminds me of Boxelder.
I’ve seen almost every variety of PO and ivy. The plant in the OP is not poisonous.
I don’t think it is either, I’m just saying the shape and color of the leaf alone is not reliable to rule out poison ivy and oak. And it’s better safe to be sorry.
Actually, the shape of the leaf is reliable in this case, and I’d like to withdraw my speculation of the OP’s plant in the holly family.
In some groups of plants the shape of the leaf is distinct, and this fact is used to actually create the group. The three leaves of these poisonous plant all connect together at a single point at the end of the stem. In the OP’s first picture, this is clearly not the case, therefore we can conclude this plant is not part of the group of poisonous plants where the three leaves meet at one point on the stem.
Among the maples, this is not the case. The shape of the typical sugar maple leaf is quite different from other maples. The clefts between the lobes can reach all the way down to the central vein, and even further where the central vein takes on stem characteristics, and again further some of the side veins will take on stem characteristics. I believe this is the case with the OP’s first picture, this is just one leaf morphologically with five separate leaflets.
… like a box elder newme pointed out.
Roundup is your friend. It will kill the roots. Wait a week or two before removing the dead plant.
That’s not poison oak.
Handy chart
https://goo.gl/images/S7oa86
Looks like Virginia creeper.
That is what I was gonna guess without even seeing the pics, but pretty sure its not. Here’s a link to images of VC leaves, and note that there arae generally 5 leaves per petiole (or stem, forget proper termage atm). VC also has lots of little tendrils along its length it uses to cling, firmly(!) to most anything as it climbs. Prestty characteristic for VC, fwiw.
However, if it IS creeper, some folks do have mild allergic response/sensitivity. My wife gets hives/bumps where even just a leaf simply touches her skin 
