Virginia Creeper is a gorgeous native vine that provides great bird habitat and sources for food.  According to one of my favorite books, Attracting Birds to Southern Gardens, this vine is probably the most important vine for birds, feeding at least 24 species, including Gray Catbirds, Eastern Bluebirds, and Northern Flickers.  It is one of our island’s best sources for fall color, turning a lovely rich red.

In Mount Pleasant, this vine can take over a yard in a single summer (trust me!) and it looks beautiful tucked amid the glossy green foliage of camellias.  After returning from Dewees last fall, I decided to free the camellias and tea olives from this aggressive plant, and wound up with a nasty rash.  I knew it wasn’t poison ivy, because I recognize and scrupulously avoid poison ivy.  After weeks of the rash getting worse, I finally saw a dermatologist, who said, “That’s a plant toxin, and if you are sure you haven’t been near poison ivy, you should identify and google all the plants in your yard to see who the culprit is.”  It turns out that something like 10% of people who are allergic to poison ivy can also develop sudden allergies to Virginia Creeper.  The chemicals are not the same:  Virginia Creeper is oxalate, and poison ivy is urushiol, but the reaction is very similar.The welts go in lines and ooze like poison ivy.  Many gardening web sites dismiss reports of this reaction with a scornful, “they don’t recognize poison ivy,” but I wish I had known about this possibility before.  I have weeded, propagated and moved this vine before, so I didn’t think there would be a problem.  Nonetheless, I thought I would share the possibility.

I love catbirds, and enjoy watching and listening to them within the thicket which is tangled with Virginia Creeper, so I will have to figure out a way to coexist… I have a doctor’s note stating, “no weeding.”