Is this Poison Oak?

Question

I have a questionable bush in my sideyard but can't determine if it really is poison oak or not. The best way for me is to send pics, which I have (about 5). I live in Northern California.

Anybody know where I can send my pics to online/website and get a reliable response?

Answer 1

Any plant that has poison (poison oak, poison ivy, poison sumac) has urushiol oil in it. It is what makes your skin breakout.

There is an easy test. Put on some gloves and pull one of the leaves off including the stem. Rub the end of the stem on some white paper. If it leaks a fluid and it turns black on the paper, it is poisonous.

There are also a number of websites to identify poisonous plants. Poison Oak will have five leaves and Poision Ivy has three.

There is also a plant called Virginia Creeper that makes some people breakout like poison, but it does not have urushiol oil.

Answer 2

Poison Oak and Poision Ivy are typically vines and do not bush like say a shrub. They can bunch up on the ground and look sort of bush like, but usually are climbers they will climb anything too, walls, trees, fences you name it.
Yank off a few leaves, and rub it on your forearm, it you get a rash it's one of the above.

Answer 3

Here you go hon. Poison oak stems have numerous roots that create a webbing. Very easy to recognize once you've seen it -- erm, gotten into it?

http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=poison+oak+plant+image&fr=ush-ans

Answer 4

Easier for you to just search for images of poison oak online and see if they look like what you have.

I did a search for you http://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images?p=poison+oak&fr=yfp-t-453&toggle=1&cop=mss&ei=UTF-8

Answer 5

just look in a book to see