Abstract
It is painful to remember the many summer days and nights I spent as a boy itching and scratching because of poison oak or ivy. I remember with intense envy those braggarts who could lay down and wallow among these plants and not catch it. They never feared the woods and could go barefoot anywhere and never had purple hands and feet from soaking in potassium permanganate solution. As a physician, I have maintained my respect, distrust, and fear for and kept my distance from poison oak and ivy. I have learned that these vicious plants with ternateleaves cause those pruritic blisters through delayed cellmediated hypersensitivity. It occurred to me to question how the poisonous plant derives benefit from afflicting its victims after they are long gone. Briars, thorns, nettles, and porcupines warn you immediately to stand your ground. Is it possible poison oak and ivy are mean by nature
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