Southern Wetland Flora
Field Office Guide to Plant Species
Toxicodendron quercifolia (Michx.) Greene
- Family: Cashew (Anacardiaceae)
- Flowering: April-May
- Field Marks: This species differs from the very similar poison ivy by its more blunt-tipped leaflets, its always upright stature, and its usually larger, hairier drupes.
- Habitat: Pinelands, fields, upland woods, thickets, sandy ridges, along railroads, in both moist and dry soils.
- Habit: Erect shrub up to 3 feet tall, rarely taller.
- Stems: Brown, rusty-hairy at first, becoming smooth with age.
- Leaves: Alternate, divided into 3 leaflets; leaflets ovate to elliptic, coarsely toothed or shallowly lobed, more or less rounded at the tip, rounded or tapering to the base, hairy on both surfaces, up to 4 inches long, up to 2 1/2 inches wide.
- Flowers: Several in spreading or ascending panicles, with the male and female flowers often borne separately on separate plants.
- Sepals: 5, green, united below.
- Petals: 5, creamy white, free from each other, up to 1/12 inch long.
- Stamens: 5.
- Pistils: Ovary superior.
- Fruits: Drupes spherical, white, or greenish white, up to 1/3 inch in diameter, densely hairy.
- Notes: This species is sometimes called Toxicodendron toxicarium or Rhus toxicodendron. Contact with any part of this plant may cause mild to severe skin rashes.
Previous Species -- Horse-sugar (Symplocos tinctoria)
Return to Species List -- Group 5
Next Species -- Poison Sumac (Toxicodendron vernix)
