How to Avoid Dangerous Plants when Hiking

Video Transcript

"Hi! I'm going to talk to you about identifying dangerous plants. Now some of the plants that you will often encounter, you need to check first on the area that you are going into because some places have poison oak and poison ivy and others don't. But just to demonstrate what poison ivy might look like, take this plant here for example. This isn't actually poison ivy but looks very similar. Poison ivy will look like this; three leaf formation. It will be slightly larger leaves and the leaves will be shiny. The way it works is when you touch the leaves, nothing happens. You can go like this a lot on a piece of poison ivy and it wouldn't do anything. What happens is if you take a leaf, remember this isn't poison ivy so I am not giving it to myself, and you roll it around on your hand and you uncrumble it, it obviously looks haggard but it feels kind of damp. What you've done is bruising the leaf and it allows the foods inside to come out. So if you step on a piece of poison ivy and your other foot touches it and gets on your leg, you scratch your leg and this is what happens. It is not pretty and it is really itchy. That is what poison ivy looks like so if you see these red spots come out, you know you've gotten poison ivy. Poison oak looks similar to this but this is what happens when you get poison ivy. Try to avoid it. It is really quite uncomfortable. Also if you are unsure of any plants or animals, again call the Ranger Station, check the billboard at the beginning of the hike or anything like that. Make sure you know about the plants before you go on your hike and that way you will be safer on your hike. "