Field of Science

Creepy Fall Color

Here's some fall color TPP spotted on his walk home today.  Fall color around here is just about at its peak and the weather is doing its best to make the display short-lived.  This display caught my eye and then came the recognition.  In general sumacs do have great fall color displays, but you seldom think about this species has having great color, but here you are, Rhus toxicodendron has great fall color even if it gives you the creepy crawlies.  OK kids, go on out and collect some nicely colored leaves.  Now if you really know your stuff about plant interactions, you'll tell me what tree this vine is growing on.  For some reason these two species always have gotten along. 

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

On the way home from work one gorgeous fall afternoon, I saw a man parked at the side of the road - he was eagerly gathering arms full of bright foliage and stuffing them into his spiffy little sports car. I pulled over and asked if he knew what it was - ?????. Oh no! OMG. What the f..k. Last I saw he was pulling the stuff out (doubling his exposure). Not a botany major, so sad.

The Phytophactor said...

Oh, that does give me the creeps. A little practical botany is always a good thing. Near our home a small hedge, probably formerly privet, now largely replaced by poison ivy remains neatly pruned. And some hedge pruner keeps wondering why they keep getting this rash.

Jenn said...

It was exported to Britain for just this very reason. Awesome fall color.

I'm going to take a wild guess and say that tree is a walnut. (and that is a guess... what I know about walnut is that plants typically don't grow well at it's roots. So that would give the ivy an advantage.

The Phytophactor said...

A very good guess, Jenn! Black walnut does inhibit many plants, but poison ivy doesn't seem to be one of them.