# Poison sumac doesn't have just three leaves

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poison-sumac-doesnt-have-just-three-leaves/526476>\
**Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\
**Created:** [January 26, 2010, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poison-sumac-doesnt-have-just-three-leaves/526476 "2010-01-26T04:52:20Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Carptracker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ac91a4/32.png) [@Carptracker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carptracker)\
**Post date:** [January 26, 2010, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poison-sumac-doesnt-have-just-three-leaves/526476/1 "2010-01-26T04:52:20Z")

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> **[I’m on a deserted island. How can I tell which plants are poisonous?](https://www.straightdope.com/21344011/i-m-on-a-deserted-island-how-can-i-tell-which-plants-are-poisonous)**

From the text: “Also, remember: “leaves of three, let them be” — groups of three leaves being the sign of poison ivy, sumac, and oak.”

Poison sumac has 9 to 13 leaflets usually on its compound leaf.

www.duke.edu/~cwcook/trees/tove4969.jpg

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**Author:** ![Una\_Persson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/una_persson/32/346_2.png) [@Una\_Persson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Una_Persson)\
**Post date:** [January 28, 2010, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poison-sumac-doesnt-have-just-three-leaves/526476/2 "2010-01-28T18:36:35Z")

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You are of course correct, and I notified folks to make sure that the column was updated. The explanation I heard was that a copy editor down the line had a moment of brief confusion, which rippled through the fabric of reality and caused the vacuum to spawn forth an extra word (and a corresponding anti-word, which ended up over at Fox News and ate a hapless web designer, if I recall correctly). Hazards of the business, they say.