First Poison Ivy

Everybody has a least favorite plant. For many folks on the botany spectrum, the one they'd most like to see disappear would be one of the major invasives, species such as Multiflora Rose, Garlic Mustard, Japanese Knotweed, and the like—this is just the tip of the alien iceberg—brought to this country from elsewhere either inadvertently or deliberately and now running roughshod over the native landscape. But high on everyone's list would have to be a thoroughly American plant known as Poison Ivy. I'm guessing that everybody who's ever walked in the woods knows the hallowed identification couplet: "Leaflets three, let it be." And then, of course, there's the famous song by the Coasters in honor of Toxicodendron radicans. (Poison Ivy worked better in the lyrics than the scientific name.) Still, bad skin afflictions aside, the plant has a redeeming feature: its newly emerging leaf trios are glistening and  quite beautiful in May. Just admire them from a distance.