LEAVES OF THREE LEAVE IT BE ....

OR IS IT REALLY LEAVES OF THREE?

Photos by Nancy Bremner

A younger leaf of the Poison Ivy plant Rhus radicans, in the background a larger leaf.  Notice that each set of three looks almost like a maple leaf.

Leaves of three BUT what is it?  It is actually a Nodding Trillium a rare plant for this area.  The little leaf on the left could be a young mountain maple or a dew berry leaf or..... are you confused yet?

Now this plant is often considered Poison Ivy but look closely and you will see it is a plant that has three stems of three -- 9 leaves so it must be a Wild Sarsaparilla Aralia nudicaulis, in its young stage.

With the tell-tale flower you should've guessed that this plant with 3 leaves was a wild strawberry.

Final test!

Did you know this was the Poison Ivy Plant?

Back to Nancy's Notes...

Back to Front Page...