History Main / KnowYourVines

* Azusa in ''LightNovel/IveBeenKillingSlimesFor300YearsAndMaxedOutMyLevel'' has this as her first skill when she reincarnated as a witch with CompleteImmortality. Through this skill, she is quite well-known in the nearby village as a herbalist, as her treatments are rather effective.

* ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'': In the second season, Iroh has a run-in with some of these. "Delectable tea?... Or ''deadly poison''?" Needless to say, the plant in question is poisonous, causing him to break out in a rash. [[DissonantSerenity "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.

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

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

* Weirdly, even something as seemingly innocent as mango peel can be hazardous. You'd have to be very unlucky to get a reaction, but if you do ''it bloody well hurts!'' The problem is a chemical called Urushiol, which is the same chemical as in ''Poision Ivy''. So be careful handling those mangoes, won't you?

* Azusa in ''LightNovel/IveBeenKillingSlimesForThreeHundredYearsAndMaxedOutMyLevel'' has this as her first skill when she reincarnated as a witch with CompleteImmortality. Through this skill, she is quite well-known in the nearby village as a herbalist, as her treatments are rather effective.

* Unisys Icon game ''A Week in the Life of...'' had one of the characters on some hiking trip. The end of that character's storyline required the player to remember what poison ivy looked like, then required having him run through plants as a TimedMission. Also, plants were placed more rapidly on faster systems, and were randomly chosen: slower computers are better.

** It uses 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.

* On ''WesternAnimation/{{Animaniacs}}'', in "Sound of the Warners", after using the bathroom in a bush, Dr. Scratchansniff gets an awful itch, because he was in a poison oak bush.
* In the second season of ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'', Iroh has a run-in with some of these. "Delectable tea?... Or ''deadly poison''?" Needless to say, the plant in question is poisonous, causing him to break out in a rash. [[DissonantSerenity "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.
* ''WesternAnimation/CampLazlo'': "Raj? Why are you hiding in that poison ivy?"

* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'': In "Bigfat", when Peter, Quagmire, and Joe were lost in a forest after Peter crashed the plane that Quagmire was piloting, Peter eats some berries that [[FacialHorror cause his lips and the skin around his eyes to recede]].

* The early camping episode on ''WesternAnimation/HeyArnold'' ended with Big Bob Pataki rushing through a small bush blocking the path (after interrupting Arnold that they have to go around it) to get back to his campsite after a disastrous hike. This bush, of course, was poison ivy, causing him more misery.
* On ''WesternAnimation/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."
* 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.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/PacMan'' episode "Backpackin' Packy", Pac-Man was giving the scouts a plant identification lesson when he picked up a leaf that he learned too late would give him a severe itch.
* 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.
* ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'': Like the ''Trolls'' example above, when [=SpongeBob=] and Patrick get lost in a forest on a road trip, [=SpongeBob=] looks for food and finds a type of berry which causes him to instantly swell up and turn purple. He doesn't need an antidote, as he can just pop himself like a balloon with a pin and [[HealingFactor regenerate]].
* On ''WesternAnimation/{{Stoked}}'', Reef picks wildflowers for Finn and leaves them on her bed. Unfortunately, there is poison ivy mixed in with the flowers.

** In "[[Recap/TotalDramaNotSoHappyCampersPartTwo Not So Happy Campers - Part 2]]", Katie and Sadie unknowingly squat in poison ivy to pee. They realize their error when their butts start itching like mad and Bridgette deduces what the cause of it is.
** In "[[Recap/TotalDramaNoPainNoGame No Pain, No Game]]", Izzy nominates herself to undergo a poison ivy spa treatment for 10 seconds. She voluntarily keeps it on a little longer and when the wraps are removed her face is all swollen and red. It doesn't stop her from laughing.
** Zoey makes a living salad for the cooking contest in "[[Recap/TotalDramaEatPukeAndBeWary Eat, Puke and Be Wary]]". It stands a chance to win, so Scott sabotages her dish by mixing poison ivy leaves into it. When Zoey eats from her salad, her mouth and throat become itchy to the point where it makes her vomit.
* ''WesternAnimation/WeBareBears'': In "Lord of the Poppies", Grizz, left in charge of the Poppy Rangers, misidentifies some berries as edible. Cut to one of the Rangers throwing up.
* On ''WesternAnimation/TheWildThornberrys'', Nigel starts to get real itchy from what is believed to be poisonous plants, but he is immune to them because he rubbed some of them all over his body. It turns out that it was chickenpox, which he missed as a kid.

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* When Sid's girlfriend leaves him in ''WesternAnimation/IceAge5CollisionCourse'', he asks if it was because he made her a bikini out of poison oak. He then absent-mindedly uses said bikini as a handkerchief, causing his nose and eyes to swell up.

** In "[[Recap/TotalDramaNotSoHappyCampersPartTwo Not So Happy Campers - Part 2]]", Katie and Sadie unknoingly squat in poison ivy to pee. They realize their error when their butts start itching like mad and Bridgette deduces what the cause of it is.

* ''WesternAnimation/TotalDrama Island'' had Katie and Sadie both squat in poison ivy to pee.

* ''WesternAnimation/TotalDrama Island'' had Katie and Sadie both squat in poison ivy to pee. HilarityEnsues.

* In an early issue of ''ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehogArchieComics'', Sonic was picking flowers to bring to Sally, only for a random background character to wander by and inform him that he's making his girlfriend a bouquet out of poison sumac. Then he starts scratching madly, which makes him swell up until he can't move. This, unfortunately, coincides with Robotnik making Pseudo Sonic, a robotic duplicate meant to infiltrate Knothole and discredit Sonic.

* ''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.

* ''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).
* One ''Series/SavedByTheBell'' fanfic, "The One Gigantic Fix", riffed on by [[Blog/ToplessRobot Rob Bricken]] [[http://www.toplessrobot.com/2010/03/fan_fiction_friday_zack_morris_in_the_one_gigantic.php here]], uses poison ivy as the reason why Zack has a permanent erection and thus needs some DeusSexMachina to save him. Maybe.
-->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]].

* The ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'' / ''Franchise/MarvelUniverse'' fanfic ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/5482319/1/Wolverine Wolverine]]'' has Bella Logan (AKA "Wolverine") and her grandfather Victor Creed/Sabertooth reminiscing about an incident during their time with Weapon X, when they went camping with the rest of their team and one of them ran afoul of this trope.
-->'''Victor''': "Remember when we ran outta toilet paper, and [[ComicBook/{{Deadpool}} Wade]] went and used poison ivy to wipe?"
-->'''Bella''': "Oh, ''god'', yes! I caught him using one of his swords to scratch." (snickers) "He went a whole day without talking to me. It was beautiful."

* ''Literature/ThePoisonwoodBible'' by Barbara Kingsolver: at one point, an American missionary in Congo ends up with tree sap on his arm and forehead, but pays it no heed. A local tells him "That tree, it bites", a warning he can't make sense of. The next day, he wakes up with a severe skin irritation where the sap was.
* In ''[[Literature/TheThrawnTrilogy Heir to the Empire]]'', Mara Jade knows perfectly well what the leaves of a certain vine do to human skin, and brushes Luke's arm with the tip of one to prove how it will be a useful disguise element, much to his dismay. She takes great delight in how it hurts and then itches, and asks if he wants her to apply it or he'd rather do it himself. He'd rather do it himself. When Imperials find them, one asks what the hell happened to his face, and he grunts "Walked into a bush."
* 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]].

* In ''Literature/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.
* Azusa in ''LightNovel/IveBeenKillingSlimesForThreeHundredYearsAndMaxedOutMyLevel'' has this as her first skill when she reincarnated as a witch with CompleteImmortality. Through this skill, she is quite well-known in the nearby village as a herbalist, as her treatments are rather effective.

* 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 ''[[VideoGame/TwistedMetal Twisted Metal: Black]]''.
* In ''Series/{{NCIS}}'', while investigating a murder in a national park [=McGee=] has to search a patch of poison ivy for a murder weapon. Tony recognizes what the plant is, but decides not to tell him. To be fair, Tony had been telling [=McGee=] about searching in the outdoors, when [=McGee=] went off on him for treating him like a probie, and assures Tony that he learned plenty in Boy Scouts.
* Stuart and Ann's camping misadventure on ''Series/LALaw''. Remember the TP next time.

* On ''Series/{{ER}}'', after Mark and Elizabeth return from a camping trip, she is seen scratching at her hands. A fellow doctor diagnoses her with poison ivy. When she asks if it will spread, he tells her it depends on what she last touched. AnswerCut to Mark scratching his nether regions.
* On ''Series/MyNameIsEarl'', Earl meets up with an old friend, [[ItMakesSenseInContext who is now living in an abandoned bookmobile in the woods.]] The man has been living off of berries that have been causing him to hallucinate, and to believe he's married to a beautiful woman named Irene. [[spoiler: It turns out that [[BestialityIsDepraved "Irene" is a raccoon.]]]] Earl recalls, too, that Joy ate those same berries on a camping trip they took while they were still married, and she too, did the MushroomSamba.

* ''Series/OneThousandWaysToDie'' had a guy attempting to imitate the actions of survivalists on TV who records himself surviving on plants he found in the wild. Having no training, he's incapable of identifying the plants he eats as [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nerium oleander]], [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digitalis foxglove]], and [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conium_maculatum hemlock]], all of which are highly toxic and lead to his death.

* One ''Webcomic/OzyAndMillie'' strip has Millie declare herself a visionary unconcerned with mundane details, only for Ozy to point out she's [[https://ozyandmillie.org/2000/08/24/ozy-and-millie-413/ standing in poison ivy]].

* 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.
* ''WesternAnimation/TotalDrama Island'' had Katie and Sadie both squat in poison ivy to pee. HilarityEnsues.

* On ''WesternAnimation/{{Stoked}}'', Reef picks wildflowers for Finn and leaves them on her bed. Unfortunately, there is poison ivy mixed in with the flowers.

* On ''WesternAnimation/{{Animaniacs}}'', in "Sound of the Warners", after using the bathroom in a bush, Dr. Scratchansniff gets an awful itch, because he was in a poison oak bush.
* On ''WesternAnimation/TheWildThornberrys'', Nigel starts to get real itchy from what is believed to be poisonous plants, but he is immune to them because he rubbed some of them all over his body. It turns out that it was chickenpox, which he missed as a kid.
* ''WesternAnimation/CampLazlo'': "Raj? Why are you hiding in that poison ivy?"

* ''WesternAnimation/AdventuresOfSonicTheHedgehog'':
** It uses 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.
** One [[AndKnowingIsHalfTheBattle Sonic Sez]] segment was about how to identify poison ivy. Hilariously, the poisonous plant shown looked more like marijuana.
* In the second season of ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'', Iroh has a run-in with some of these. "Delectable tea?... Or ''deadly poison''?" Needless to say, the plant in question is poisonous, causing him to break out in a rash. [[DissonantSerenity "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.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheDayMyButtWentPsycho'': In "Snoozing Booty", Zack is trying to 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.

* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'': In "Bigfat", when Peter, Quagmire, and Joe were lost in a forest after Peter crashed the plane that Quagmire was piloting, Peter eats some berries that [[FacialHorror cause his lips and the skin around his eyes to recede]].
-->'''Peter''': Okay, these are a 'Maybe'.

* In the ''{{Franchise/StarWars}}'' fic ''[[https://m.fanfiction.net/s/9203119/1/Encounter-On-Myrkr Encounter on Myrkr]]'' Luke Skywalker and Mara Jade try re-enacting their night on Myrkyr after they’re married and Talon Karrde is setting up a base there. They roll around in the brush and start making love, and wind up contacting the stinging, itching, swelling plant from their first experience(see the Literature entry below)only in some much more intimate places this time. Han Solo remarks that he’d think they’d have learned their lesson about that plant the first time.

* In the ''{{Franchise/StarWars}}'' fic ''[[https://m.fanfiction.net/s/9203119/1/Encounter-On-Myrkr Encounter on Myrkr]]” Luke Skywalker and Mara Jade try re-enacting their night on Myrkyr after they’re married and Talon Karrde is setting up a base there. They roll around in the brush and start making love, and wind up contacting the stinging, itching, swelling plant from their first experience(see the Literature entry below)only in some much more intimate places this time. Han Solo remarks that he’d think they’d have learned their lesson about that plant the first time.

* In the ''Franchise/StarWars'' fic ''[[https://m.fanfiction.net/s/9203119/1/Encounter-On-Myrkr “Encounter on Myrkr]]” Luke Skywalker and Mara Jade try re-enacting their night on Myrkyr after they’re married and Talon Karrde is setting up a base there. They roll around in the brush and start making love, and wind up contacting the stinging, itching, swelling plant from their first experience(see the Literature entry below)only in some much more intimate places this time. Han Solo remarks that he’d think they’d have learned their lesson about that plant the first time.

* In the ''Franchise/StarWars'' fic ''[[https://m.fanfiction.net/s/9203119/1/Encounter-On-Myrkr “Encounter on Myrkr]]” Luke Skywalker and Mara Jade try re-enacting their night on Myrkyr after they’re married and Talon Karrde is setting up a base there. They roll around in the brush and make out and wind up contacting the stinging, itching, swelling plant from their first experience, only in some much more intimate places this time. Han Solo remarks that he’d think they’d have learned their lesson about that plant the first time.

* In ''ComicBook/ElfQuest'', Lehrigen has been commissioned by the Djun to bring him an elven healer. It's the dead of winter when Lehrigen and his hunters reach the current Holt of Ember and her tribe; Ember gives instructions to try and drive the humans away, preferably without hurting them. Cue fairy tale pranks. But then Teir and Mender come up with something darker: Assuring Ember that it's perfectly harmless and will only irritate the humans, they leave dry itchleaf vines[[note]]a plant similar to poison ivy[[/note]] in a neat pile; the humans find them while looking for kindling. One of the humans suffocates to death after breathing the smoke. Ember is ''beyond'' pissed when she finds out Teir and Mender lied to her. Lehrigen is angry with the elves, but he also chews out the survivors for being so stupid as to fall for the bait in the first place.

* 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 altogether, but SlimeGirl Suu proved she could [[NewPowersAsThePlotDemands safely distinguish between the poisonous plants and the ones that were safe to eat]].

* In an early issue of ''ComicBook/ArchieComicsSonicTheHedgehog'', Sonic was picking flowers to bring to Sally, only for a random background character to wander by and inform him that he's making his girlfriend a bouquet out of poison sumac. Then he starts scratching madly, which makes him swell up until he can't move. This, unfortunately, coincides with Robotnik making Pseudo Sonic, a robotic duplicate meant to infiltrate Knothole and discredit Sonic.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

->''"Hmmm... delicious tea? Or deadly poison?"''

* 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. [[DissonantSerenity "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.

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).

* 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 [[NewPowersAsThePlotDemands safely distinguish between the poisonous plants and the ones that were safe to eat]].

* 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, is not aware they should not be touched and are in fact to be avoided, and therefore has no idea of the subsequent emetic and irritant effects.

* 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.

* Azusa in ''LightNovel/IveBeenKillingSlimesForThreeHundredYearsAndMaxedOutMyLevel'' has this as her first skill when she reincarnated as a witch with CompleteImmortality. Through this skill she is quite well-known in the nearby village as a herbalist, as her treatments are rather effective.

* On ''Series/{{ER}}'', after Mark and Elizabeth return from a camping trip, she is seems scratching at her hands. A fellow doctor diagnoses her with poison ivy. When she asks if it will spread, he tells her it depends on what she last touched. AnswerCut to Mark scratching his nether regions.

* Unisys Icon game ''A Week in the Life of...'' had one of the characters in some hiking trip. The end of that character's storyline required the player to remember what poison ivy looked like, then required having him run through plants as a TimedMission. Also, plants were placed more rapidly on faster systems, and were randomly chosen: slower computers are better.

[[folder:Western Animation ]]

* On ''WesternAnimation/TheWildThornberrys'', Nigel starts to get real itchy from what is believed to be poisonous plants, but he is immune to them because he rubbed some of them all over his body. It turns out that it was chicken pox, which he missed as a kid.

* 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.