What is the actual difference between poison ivy, poison oak, and poison sumac? 🧪 I didn’t realize how much confusion there was over these plants, but when I posted a video showing my… experiments with Eastern Poison Ivy (Tocixodendron radicans) I received many *bold* claims that what I was showing was not in fact poison ivy. Some people were saying it wasn’t Toxicodendron at all, but a really common claim was that it was actually “poison oak” or “poison sumac”. I don’t really understand the po

Unfortunately due to naming, many people think only of “poison” sumac (Toxicodendron vernix) instead of the edible species in the Rhus genus when they think of wild sumac. Thankfully, it couldn’t be easier to tell the difference. Poison sumac with have smooth-edged leaflets and both smooth and staghorn sumac will have serrated edges. Dwarf sumac does also have smooth edges, but it also has the presence of that “leafy” inner part along the stem between leaflets. If we’re talking about the berries