Re: What kinda trees are these?
I had no idea Poison Sumac was a small tree, not a vine, until i chopped some down w a machette while surveying years ago in Mt. Airy N.C.; I've never seen it here in the peidmont. I chopped some and poked my forearm on the sharp end of one i had just cut as i swung on another. Later at the motel I tried to scrub some small, round, black dots off my arms while showering, they would not go away. The small wound where i poked myself was red and swelling. Hours later very itchy swollen patches appeared all over my body as the poison moved through my bloodstream and a red streak ran up my cut arm to my shoulder
I found out at the ER that the sap in poison Sumac sprays out when you cut or break it and it turns your skin black where it contacts it, trying to scrub the black dots off only makes it more irritated/worse. They also said the poison somehow causes your body to start reproduceing? or increasing the effect of this stuff once introduced to the body through broken skin. The speed which the red irritated areas grew and multiplied was startling to me and I hope I never go through this again. It is alot worse than Poison Ivy IMO. It took a week of unbearable itching to finally start to subside, even the palms of my hands itched!. I know exactly what Sumac looks like now!
