4 Poisonous Plants You SHOULD KNOW When Foraging!

now as we can see when jack in the pulpit is growing at this stage we're going to notice a trifoliate leaf pattern each one of these leaves is going to be ovate shaped and they're going to be smooth along the margins we're also going to notice these very distinct veins that are running laterally to each other at sort of a 45 degree angle from the mid vein of each leaf and as we can see on each one of these leaves that is the case the top of the leaf is going to be darker green versus the underside of the leaf as we can see here is going to be a little bit lighter in sort of a gray color in appearance each one of these leaves is going to converge at the top of the plant stem just like we can see right here where they all converge and meet up here we can see the main stem of the plant and then over here is the very top of what's known as the pulpit so let's take a close look at the pulpit or the flower of jack in the pulpit now whenever we're looking at the pulpit of jack in the pulpit this is technically and botanically known as a spathe inside of it if we open up this top leaf or this hood we can actually see there's a spadix inside the flowers are down there in the very bottom and those kind of brownish red sort of little inflorescence that are at the very bottom this is part of this plant's reproductive strategy and we're going to talk about that in a minute if we put the top of the hood back over and we turn it back we can see this very unique cup like shape with this distinct hood over top whenever we're looking at the spade x of jack and the pulpit we can notice these whiter striations with these purplish brown tinging in between them as this matures it will actually turn more brown in appearance where these purple tinges are in between these white striations now after the plant is pollinated and it comes to fruit it does produce a cluster of berries that some people confuse with ginseng berries plus ginseng looks a lot more unique and has a palmate leaf structure versus a trifoliate leaf structure like jack in the pulpit as we noticed earlier here comes the sun as we noticed earlier the inside of that hood is going to be a purple color you're going to have purple and green and sometimes this can be brown in appearance as well as we look inside we can see the spadix right there coming up through the center looking sort of phallic and then down deeper we can see all those little bitty inflorence inflorescences i know this is difficult to see i can't really get this to focus anymore just because of the depth of field of this plant jack and the pulpit as we can see is a very unique plant and it grows from what's called a corm if we're looking inside at the inside of the flower all those little inflorescences attract its pollinators it's pollinated by fungus gnats the fungus gnats are attracted to the very rancid smell of the inflorescence inside of the spathe and then they get trapped in because of this hood in each flower there is male and female inflorescences or male and female flowers the male flowers will usually die off before the females have had a chance to grow this plant will grow from what's known as a corm spring beauty also grows from what's known as a corm the quorum of this plant is what's edible however requires extremely extremely cautious preparation all of the plants parts are very high in oxalic acid and oxalate crystals these will cause a deep burning sensation in the mouth and the throat and on the skin where the plant juice has gotten on your skin this is a plant that's best observed from a distance observe its uniqueness and observe its beauty this plant as we can see also likes to grow in clusters or groups or small colonies whenever they're coming up and they're very very young we're going to see just these three leaves that we can see back here this makes some people confuse this plant with poison ivy because they both have a trifoliate leaf pattern poison ivy looks very very different and i have an identification video of poison ivy on my channel if you guys are interested so let's take a look at some of the younger jack and the pulpit plants and see what they look like in comparison to our more matured jack-in-the-pole put plants right here as we can see this little bitty trifoliate guy coming up here this is a young jack in the pulpit and this is what they look like as they're coming up which i assume causes people to confuse this with poison ivy as we can see it looks very different and the leaves wrap around the stem and they come up in a folded sort of pattern and as the plant matures over time those leaves will spread out to look like the more mature ones we just took a look at so as you guys can see jack in the pulpit is a very easy plant to identify it's extremely unique and there isn't anything else like it in the eastern woodlands now this plant is native to the eastern woodlands and it can be found all the way through canada on the eastern coast all the way over towards the mississippi river area north up into canada all the way down through florida so if you live in the eastern united states there's a good chance you're running across jack in the pulpit in the woods very beautiful plant with these white berries they have these black spots on the end of them oops one of them just broke off that's all right here we go we can see at the end we've got these little white berries with these uh black spots at the end of them the common name of this plant is doll's eyes because these look like well the eyeballs that you would find in a doll like a childhood doll set that berry there because it's got seeds in it i'll bury that dude up but anyways another name for this plant is bain berry now if you guys might remember on my uh mock strawberry video i also call mock strawberry bainberry so that is not to be confused with this plant obviously you can tell by looking at it it looks nothing like a strawberry but we can see these berries coming out of this here and this is very common on this plant this time of year right around the beginning of fall and the end of the summer you're going to see these white berries coming on this very beautiful pink stem you notice these berries are arranged in sort of like an alternating opposite sort of situation that they've got going on here really really pretty really pretty all right now right here we can see the leaves of the dolzy plant now these are compound leaves as we can see here they are kind of dying and tinging off because of the colors good thing about this plant is that it while it is poisonous it's not going to hurt you just by simply touching it like this however do not consume these berries especially but do not consume any part of this plant if we look at these leaves we're going to notice that there are three leaflets up at the top and then we're going to notice two leaflets at the back and they're going to be divided with different lobes and if we also look very close we can see that the margins are actually double toothed margins so this is a really easy way to identify this plant this time of year as those berries but we can also see the leaves are going to be a little bit variable if we look at these back leaflets on this side and we look at this one right here we can see it doesn't have any divisions like this one does so if we compare that to these leaves over here you can see how they're divided a lot differently than the other ones so keep that in mind whenever you're looking at the leaves on this plant that they do have some variation right over here we can see some more of these leaves here so this is a good idea of something to look out for if you're wanting to find this plant or you see it and you're curious about it just keep in mind that it is highly poisonous and do not consume this plant especially the berries or the root they are the most poisonous parts of the plant to my knowledge poison ivy is a plant that's very notorious and infamous for causing skin rashes because of the essential oils that are within the plant the essential oils within poison ivy can last for months in some cases on clothes shoes gloves hands skin etc some people are not allergic to this plant and some are extremely allergic this is a plant that causes a lot of problems around the home because it generally likes to grow around trees fence posts and things like that so it's important to know how to identify this plant so let's get right into the identification factors of poison ivy right here in front of us we can see this three-leafed plant now these actually look like leaves but they are technically leaflets i'm going to be using a stick to be pointing out some of the features of this plant because i do not want to touch this plant mainly because i have an open wound on my hand and i do not want to get the essential oil of this plant within my bloodstream and i don't want to pass it on to anybody else someone that i live with is allergic to poison ivy unfortunately i myself am not allergic to this plant but it's also possible to develop allergies over time to this plant now if we look very closely here we're going to notice these three leaves or leaflets these are actually leaflets though they are separated by a little bit of a stem these are actually leaflets the leaflets of poison ivy are lance shaped and there are going to be lobes or teeth along the margins like we can see right here we see this little bitty lobe starting if we look on this one we can see little bitty lobes again along the margins of the leaves in the earlier stages of poison ivy's growth you're going to notice a more glossy appearance sometimes the leaflets can appear red or they will be red in color and that's another key feature to look for but note that not every poison iv leaflet or lee set of leaves will have this feature as we can see in front of us there is no red here just a slight glossy appearance if we look at these leaves back over here we can notice that they are kind of dull in green color they're not red they're not glossy but it is poison ivy you may also notice that lobe the very distinct lobe to the very bottom right in the frame if we look over at this one we can see again that lobe on one of the leaflets right here at the tip of the stick we're going to notice a little red tinge or a little red mark this is indicative of poison ivy on the tips of the leaflets i've noticed this on almost every leaflet where the leaf stem joins to each leaflet there's going to be these red tinges now once we're looking at another set of leaves we can see this red tingeing and these red marks that join up right here along the leaflets to the leaf stem at the petiole of each one of the leaflets there are other plants that have this red mark at this portion of the leaf where the leaf joins the stem that is not in itself indicative of poison ivy you want to make sure that you're focusing on the leaves and the shape of the leaflets before you just automatically jump to the red marking in red tingeing indicating poison ivy poison ivy can take various forms right in front of us we're noticing the climbing vine form of poison ivy it can spread itself through various different means one of those is by seeds which are dispersed by animals and birds because they are unfortunately for us humans immune to the essential oil within this plant and they're able to eat the berries and disperse the seeds it can also spread itself out by pollination and it can also spread itself through rhizomes or spreading root stocks that go throughout the soil and that is how i can spread and this vine will continue to spread and climb over whatever it can right in front of us we are noticing the climbing vine version of poison ivy it can also be a shrub-like plant or it can also be a creeping plant that kind of creeps along the ground as well so you want to make sure to keep in mind there are three versions of poison ivy that you may see as poison ivy climbs along trees like we have in front of us we're going to notice this woody vine like structure growing up along inside of the ridges of the bark poison ivy will attach itself through the tree and actually into the tree itself it can also be destructive to masonry and brickwork so that's something else to keep in mind when you were looking at this plant poison ivy does produce flowers as we can see right here they're sort of a whitish green color and we can see them coming out of the nodes on the leaf stem of the plant they form in rather dense clusters just like we can see in front of us after this plant grows to flower it will produce berries and these berries contain the seeds that birds and animals will use to spread this plant i apologize for the wind it is extremely windy today if we look at these leaflets in front of us we can notice the lobes on the very front leaflet right here on each side and then we can notice the lobe on the back of the back leaflets this is another one of the varying shapes of leaves that poison ivy can have it does have variable leaves meaning that the leaves can actually have various shapes to them if we look along the margins of this leaflet right here we can notice the teeth that are growing along the sides of the leaf or the margin of the leaf so you're going to notice teeth and lobes growing along the leaflets of poison ivy so make sure that you keep this in mind whenever you are looking at this plant and trying to identify it as we follow a mature poison ivy plant up the tree or whatever it is growing on we're going to notice these clusters of flowers growing out of the axles or the nodes of each set of leaves along the leaf stem of the plant there are some plants that people confuse with poison ivy and we're going to talk about one of the major plants that people confuse with poison ivy right now in front of us is a plant known as virginia creeper this is a plant that some people confuse with poison ivy poison oak and also poison sumac however all of these plants look very different whenever you look at the leaves and the leaf structure of each one of them as we notice on this one in front of us this virginia creeper vine in front of us we're going to notice there are actually five leaflets these leaves are divided into a palmate structure instead of divided into individual leaflets like we see on poison ivy so there are five leaflets on virginia creeper instead of three that we see on poison ivy virginia creeper is a poisonous plant and it contains calcium oxalate crystals within its leaves and its stem calcium oxalate crystals can cause an intense burning sensation in the mouth and the throat this is not a plant to be consumed however it does not usually cause a skin rash or dermatitis and people who brush up against it or get the oils on their skin some people are allergic to this plant but not very many are allergic to brushing up against it like we see with our poison ivy our poison oaks or our poison sumacs now if we look at the petiole where all of these leaflets come out on virginia creeper there is also a slight red tinge or a red mark just like we noticed on poison ivy these red marks or red tinges are not always indicative of a poisonous plant they're not always indicative of poison ivy or virginia creeper so make sure you keep that in mind when you are trying to identify a plant that may be poisonous that not all of them are going to have these and just because a plant does have these red marks or red tinges also does not make it poisonous virginia creeper is also a climbing vine just like poison ivy is however virginia creeper is not destructive to masonry or brickwork because it attaches through a completely different mechanism than poison ivy this is an extremely easy plant to identify but it's also one of the most deadly plants known to man so it's extremely important to know how to identify this you might notice that i'm not actually touching it too much and that's generally because touching this plant can simply be enough to cause a rash or even spread some of its toxins onto your skin which can then carry over later so i'm not going to be touching this plant like i normally do let's take a closer look at these flowers here whenever we look at the flowers of water hemlock we're going to notice that they are very sparsely populated in these um bells kind of like an upside down umbrella like you would expect to see with regular poison hemlock you can see how much space there is in between each one of these stems or bracks if you will that lead off into this cluster of flowers this is one of the major indicators of water hemlock now let's take a look at its leaves whenever we look at the leaves of water hemlock at the base of the plant near the ground we're going to notice this compound structure very very similar to poison hemlock these leaves are technically leaflets all these what look like leaves are technically leaflets these leaves are also much smaller than they are on regular poison hemlock so keep that in mind if we look really closely at them however we're going to notice these veins coming off at kind of like a 45 degree angle from the mid rib we can see the mid rib here and we can see these veins running at a 45 degree angle from the leaf if we look at the tip of the leaf we're going to notice that it comes to a very nice point and we can see some of the teeth running along the margin of this leaf here in the center of the frame right here we can see some more of the leaves of our water hemlock plant and you can see this compound structure that they have and the higher up we go along the plant of our water hemlock we're going to notice that these compound leaves get smaller and smaller and we're going to see about three leaflets towards the top of the plant this is about two inches from the very two to four inches from the top of the plant and we can see these three to four little leaflets coming out here we can also see more of those teeth margins and those veins that i was talking about we can see those a lot more clearly here on this picture another thing we're going to notice if we look at the leaves we're going to notice where these leaf and leaflets actually come out we're going to notice another purple splotch like we can see in the center of the frame if we look along the stem of our water hemlock we're going to notice that it's round green with this purple splotching or purple tingeing that is just oh so common with your hemlock species this is a really good indicator of a hemlock species now i do want to mention there are some plants that have purple splotching that are not hemlock make sure you keep that in mind if we look at the leafing pattern of our water hemlock we're going to notice that it has an alternating leafing pattern just like we can see here how these leaves will alternate up and down the stem and then the nodes is where we're going to notice that purple splotching or that purple tinging and the rest is going to be generally green however there is some variation with that here if we look at the stem of this waterhemlock we can actually see that this stem is a lot more purplish red than the other one that we were just looking at so there's not only a couple variations to the leaves there's a couple of variations to the stems that you're also going to be finding on your waterhemlock plants this white powdery substance is actually like a bloom if you rub that it will come off on your fingers i'm not going to rub it because just simply touching this plant can be enough to spread its toxic

Channel: Trillium: Wild Edibles

Views: 19,012

Keywords: poisonous plants, how to identify poisonous plants, jack in the pulpit toxic, poison ivy, white baneberry, dolls eyes plant, virginia creeper vine poisonous, water hemlock plant, water hemlock poisonous, trillium wild edibles, foraging, toxic look a likes, wild edibles

Id: QgPMl_sLkLw

Length: 21min 41sec (1301 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 21 2022