History Main / KnowYourVines

-->'''Victor''': "Remember when we ran outta toilet paper, and [[SelfDemonstrating/{{Deadpool}} Wade]] went and used poison ivy to wipe?"

* ''Franchise/ArchieComics'':

* Creator/StephenKing's autobiography ''On Writing'' has an anecdote about going to the bathroom behind a tree and using some nice shiny leaves to wipe his behind.

-->-- '''Uncle Iroh''', ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender''[[/note It's poison.]]

-->-- '''Uncle Iroh''', ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender''[[/note]] It's poison.

-->-- '''Uncle Iroh''', ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender''

* This trope is a very big reason why, in the Literature/{{Discworld}}, the Assassins' Guild School has a Botany Department. It is run by a woman who became a late entrant to the Guild owing to her unparelleled knowledge and expertise concerning green growing things. In a later tale, her daughter exploits the fact a troublesome idiot does not know what a croton oil plant looks like and therefore has no idea of the subsequent emetic and irritant effects.

* This trope is a very big reason why, in the Literature/{{Discworld}}, the Assassins' Guild School has a botany Department. It is run by a woman who became a late entrant to the Guild owing to her unparelleled knowledge and expertise concerning green growing things. In a later tale, her daughter exploits the fact a troublesome idiot does not know what a croton oil plant looks like and therefore has no idea of the subsequent emetic and irritant effects.

* In the second season of ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'', Iroh has a run-in with some of these. "Delicious tea?... Or ''deadly poison''?" Needless to say, the plant in question is poisonous, causing him to break out in a rash. [[CasualDangerDialogue "When the swelling reaches my throat, I will stop breathing."]] And to show he hasn't learned his lesson, Iroh brings out some berries that may cure him or make him blind. Zuko insists they find a doctor instead.

* In ''Discworld/TheLastContinent'', Rincewind discovers a vine which, if you carefully peel off the bark, gives you a nasty rash. What he'd been ''trying'' to find was a vine which, if you carefully peel off the bark, gives you a serviceable twine. It took him several more rashes to achieve that part.

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

* One ''Franchise/ArchieComics'' story ended with the revelation that the corsage Archie gave Veronica to wear at the prom was poison ivy.
** Oh, it gets worse. There was another comic where Archie lost his shorts in a swimming hole, and Jughead made him an impromptu grass skirt out of nearby vines. Yep--they turned out to be poison ivy.

* ''FanFic/TheLegendOfSpyroANewDawn'': After going awhile into the forest temple, Sparx begins getting an unpleasant rash. Ember identifies the plants in the bush he passed through as poison ivy, which she knows because her mother taught her about it (not because Dragons get poison ivy, which they don't, but because eating it is really dangerous).

-->''Now,it might had been the fact that he had covered himself with something that might possibly had been poison ivy or that there was something in the water.[[ShrugOfGod I really don't know]].''
* ''Fanfic/CalvinAndHobbesTheSeries'' reuses one bit from ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'' below.

[[folder:Newspaper Comics]]
* ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'': after Calvin utterly fails a report on plants, he angrily asks what good it does to identify plants while holding a branch. Hobbes then replies "I believe that's poison sumac you're holding." He also regularly runs afoul of poison ivy during family camping trips.
* In ''ComicStrip/FoxTrot'', Jason and Marcus get sent on a night hike through poison ivy as part of an EscalatingWar of pranks with the girls. They compound the folly by deciding to use the leaves as camouflage.
** Another ''ComicStrip/FoxTrot'' has Jason and Marcus running through fields covered in poison ivy in an attempt to escape from Peter after they shot him in the face with superglue-covered suction darts. In this case Jason and Marcus ''did'' know their vines but decided it was better to deal with the poison ivy than be caught by Peter (who seems in the mood to re-enact ''Film/TheShining'').
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Webcomics]]
* [[http://xkcd.com/443/ This]] ''Webcomic/{{xkcd}}'' comic is the TropeNamer.
** Ironically, the oxalate crystals in Virginia creeper [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toxicodendron_radicans#Similar-looking_plants can also]] cause an allergic reaction in some people.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' episode "Bridle Gossip", the Mane Six walk through a patch of bright blue flowers to stop Apple Bloom following Zecora. The next morning they wake with embarrassing changes, such as Pinkie having a swollen tongue and Applejack being shrunk to miniature size, all of which they blame on a curse cast by Zecora. It's eventually revealed that the flowers were from a magical plant called 'poison joke', and the girls' ailments were a side effect of the plant.

* ''WesternAnimation/AdventuresOfSonicTheHedgehog'' used the same basic Pseudo Sonic plot as the above-mentioned Archie Comics incidence, (not sure which came first) although since in this incarnation Sonic has no girlfriend for whom he might be inclined to pick flowers, he just randomly blunders into an entire valley full of "poison flowers" while saving a character from a completely different threat.

* In the second season of ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'', Iroh has a run-in with some of these.
--> "Delicious tea?... Or ''deadly poison''?"
** Needless to say, the plant in question was poisonous, causing him to break out in a rash. [[CasualDangerDialogue "When the swelling reaches my throat, I will stop breathing."]] And to show he hasn't learned his lesson, Iroh brings out some berries that may cure him or make him blind. Zuko insists they find a doctor instead.

* Like the ''WesternAnimation/{{Trolls}}'' example above, when WesternAnimation/{{SpongeBob|SquarePants}} and Patrick got lost in a forest on a road trip, [=SpongeBob=] looked for food and found a type of berry which caused him to instantly swell up and turn purple. He didn't need an antidote, as he could just pop himself like a balloon with a pin and [[HealingFactor regenerate]].

[[folder:RealLife]]
* This is the main hazard posed by [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast "Stalin's revenge"]], also known as the giant hogweed. It's a grass taller than most sapling trees. The poisonous sap/juice of this plant is really potent and causes burns comparable to mustard gas. It's also basically the Eastern European equivalent of kudzu, an imported plant that the authorities considered potentially useful but it spread uncontrollably all over the land. The worst part? It looks harmless, even beautiful, if you don't know better, as many city kids learn to their chagrin after a trip to the country.
** Its leaves are also broad, large and inviting as impromptu toilet paper. Many a CitySlicker temporarily lost the ability to sit painlessly because of this plant.
** The stems are cylindrical and hollow and make a great pretend telescope.

A character is in a very nature oriented setting, with all kinds of wild plants surrounding them. They're doing whatever it is they planned to do, and at some point pick up or walk into an ordinary looking plant. After a small amount of contact with it, someone who is more knowledgeable about nature will casually inform them "That's poison ivy" (or poison oak, the plants have the same toxin).

[[folder: Anime and Manga]]

[[folder: Comic Books]]

* Early in the movie ''WesternAnimation/{{Coraline}}'', the title character brushes some leaves off a stick and uses it as a water rod. She meets Wybie, and has a fairly long conversation with him, and at the end he throws in that the stick she's holding is poison oak.

* Something similar to this trope occurs in ''Literature/GalaxyOfFear''. Tash climbs a tree to escape attention, then starts crawling her way through the treetops, well above the threat she's trying to avoid. Unfortunately, at some point she crawls into the branches of a vesuvague tree, which [[TentacleRope snares her in its vines]] and [[CombatTentacles threatens to strangle her]].

[[folder: Live-Action TV]]

[[folder: Newspaper Comics]]

[[folder: Video Games]]

[[folder: Webcomics]]

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

* On ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', in a three story episode about history, Lisa as Sacajawea is giving Lewis and Clark's expedition party quick advice, and tells one soldier that he's holding poison oak.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' episode "Bridle Gossip", the mane six walk through a patch of bright blue flowers to stop Apple Bloom following Zecora. The next morning they wake with embarrassing changes, such as Pinkie having swollen tongue and Applejack being shrunk to miniature size, all of which they blame on a curse cast by Zecora. It's eventually revealed that the flowers were from a magical plant called 'poison joke', and the girls' ailments were a side effect of the plant.

[[folder: RealLife]]

* After a huge fight and emotional breakdown with an unrequited love interest in a forest, the title character of ''Series/MalcolmInTheMiddle'' dries his tears with some leaves he found. The girl he is with tells him he's using poison oak. We see a rather disturbing shot of his face a little later, which resembles the character No-Face in Twisted Metal Black.

* ''Series/TheCloser'': In "Lover's Leap", Brenda ignores Buzz's urgent attempts to tell her something while she is examining a crime. What he was trying to tell her was that she was standing in poison oak. This later becomes an important clue in revealing the killer.

* On ''WesternAAnimation/KickButtowski'', Kick and Brad are lost in the woods. While Kick, who likes to rough it, sleeps on the bare ground, Brad brags about how Kick wished he had a comfy blanket of natural foliage like him. "You're right, Brad. I wished I had a blanket of poison ivy."

** Needless to say, the plant in question was poisonous, causing him to break out in a rash. [[CasualDangerDialogue "When the swelling reaches my throat, I will stop breathing."]] And to show he hasn't learned his lesson, Iroh brings out some berries that may cure him or make him blind. Needless to say, Zuko insists they find a doctor.

[[caption-width-right:315:[[http://xkcd.com/443/ Friggen' modern tents don't]] [[AltText have a single piece of rope.]]]]

* ''WesternAnimation/TheDayMyButtWentPsycho'': In "Snoozing Booty", Zack is trying trick Eleanor into kissing Deuce (ItMakesSenseInContext), so [[UnderTheMistletoe he holds some mistletoe over him]] and claims it's the law that she has to kiss him. She points out that that is not an actual law, and that what he is actually holding isn't mistletoe but poison ivy. As Zack runs around screaming, Eleanor then hands him the poison ivy vine to scratch himself with.

* ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'': after Calvin utterly fails a report on plants, he angrily asks what good it does to identify plants while holding a branch. Hobbes then replies "I believe that's poison sumac you're holding."

* In ''Manga/DailyLifeWithMonsterGirl'', protagonist Kimihito's very low on funds for food to feed his UnwantedHarem. Part of his hunt for food leads him into a forest filled with both edible plants and very poisonous ones. He was originally going to give up on the plants all together, but SlimeGirl Suu proved she could safely detect the poison and was able to sort out which plants were safe.

* Just one of the many hazards of life in Camp Granada as described by Creator/AlanSherman in ''Hello Muddah, Hello GFddah (A Letter from Camp)'':