# Can anyone tell the difference between these?



## deaconjim

And perhaps tell me how you know?



















Hint, they are two different plants.


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## Darren

Is the top one a buckeye and the bottom virginia creeper?


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## deaconjim

Darren said:


> Is the top one a buckeye and the bottom virginia creeper?


Close, but not quite.


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## Darren

Don't tell me the top one is ginseng.


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## deaconjim

No, it would be nice if it was. The top bottom one is Virginia Creeper, and the top one is Western Poison Oak.


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## oth47

Are you sure? Where did you find the pix? I can't find any pix of western poison oak that have more than 3 leaves..


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## deaconjim

oth47 said:


> Are you sure? Where did you find the pix? I can't find any pix of western poison oak that have more than 3 leaves..


I did a search on Bing for "poison oak 5 leaf"


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## bluefish

I have never seen a 5 leave poison oak and I live and worked out in the woods for several years in the western part of the country. My guess is the 5 leaf stuff on bing is still virginia creeper. I know several people who have had reactions to the sap of that plant. I can see why people would call it poison oak as the reactions are similar. I've never had personal experience with virginia creeper myself.

However, this is probably worth what you paid for it.


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## deaconjim

thermopkt said:


> I have never seen a 5 leave poison oak and I live and worked out in the woods for several years in the western part of the country. My guess is the 5 leaf stuff on bing is still virginia creeper. I know several people who have had reactions to the sap of that plant. I can see why people would call it poison oak as the reactions are similar. I've never had personal experience with virginia creeper myself.
> 
> However, this is probably worth what you paid for it.


The reason this came up was that I was out working in my yard when a neighbor stopped what she was doing to say hello. She explained that she was clearing out poison oak, and pointed to a plant that I had all over my yard. In fact, I had been pulling the stuff by had on a fairly regular basis and never had a problem with it. By the look of her garden, I didn't feel inclined to challenge her knowledge of plants, but I did look it up. I found the photos of 5 leaf poison oak, and compared that to Va Creeper and couldn't tell the difference. I also found a reference to poison oak on Wiki that said poison oak had 3 leaves, or rarely 5 or 7 leaves.


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## bluefish

deaconjim said:


> The reason this came up was that I was out working in my yard when a neighbor stopped what she was doing to say hello. She explained that she was clearing out poison oak, and pointed to a plant that I had all over my yard. In fact, I had been pulling the stuff by had on a fairly regular basis and never had a problem with it. By the look of her garden, I didn't feel inclined to challenge her knowledge of plants, but I did look it up. I found the photos of 5 leaf poison oak, and compared that to Va Creeper and couldn't tell the difference. I also found a reference to poison oak on Wiki that said poison oak had 3 leaves, or rarely 5 or 7 leaves.



I have seen the 5 and 7 thing, but it was only an isolated leaf cluster or two on the main plant. The plant as a whole had the 3 leaf thing going on and the leaf clusters still looked poison oakish, if that makes any sense. It just looks different than your pics. However, I am only familiar with the western species.


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## Badger

Watch them in the fall - Poison oak or Ivy will turn yellow and the Virginia Creeper turns red. I think both pictures are Virginia Creeper


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## madisonwoods

Both pictures look like virginia creeper. It sometimes looks different depending on where it's growing (sun or shade) and how old the plant is. I base my reasons on just having spent a lot of time learning to tell the difference between virginia creeper and ginseng.


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