What is the difference in poison oak, poison ivy, and poison sumac? Are they all three the same plant just?

Question

called by a different name?

Answer 1

Five different species, same genus:

http://plants.usda.gov/java/nameSearch?k...

Note that there are different species of poison oak and poison ivy on the east and west coasts.

Click on the names in blue to see more information about each species (and subspecies) and often pictures of each.

All of them contain the chemical compound "urushiol", which is the material causing the rash.  If you're sensitized to one species, you'll react to all of them, generally.  And you may also cross-react to mango, unroasted or improperly roasted cashews and true Japanese or Chinese lacquer (which is not the stuff used in wood finishing).

Answer 2

Sumac is miserable, man.  It makes you swell up, at least it did with me.  I got it during basic training and my eyes swelled shut! Really, I got put in medical quarters for three days.  

Then, when I got out I had to go back the field, and being the hyper intelligent, super high-speed soldier I was I never bothered to figure out what Sumac looks like.  Can you guess what happened about 18 hours after I got out of quarters?  Yup, got sent right back for the same thing!

The worst part: I still don't know Poison Sumac from a tulip!

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But, yeah, they are different.  And they cause different reactions, at least that's been my experience.  Ivy only makes me itch a little, maybe a rash.  

Oak sorta gives me little "itch puss" bumbs where ever it touches.  I call it "itch puss" because it stings until I scratch at it, then this sort of liquid comes out and spreads the itch around.  

Then the sumac, that was just plain misery.  It hurt and itched and made me feel sick. (And of course I swelled up where ever I was dumb enough to spread the stuff, too!)

Answer 3

They're 3 different plants.