I'll add a bit of info about Poison Sumac trees.I worked Surveying about 30 yrs. in the field. Never seen much or any PS around the Piedmont were I worked. We got a job in Mount Airy in the foothills in NW N.C. near VA. It was summer and I was wearing a t shirt chopping a line in the afternoon w a machete when I reached out to cut another and slightly stabbed my forearm on a sharp cut, 8' tall "sapling" I had cut w my last swing of the blade. It bled a bit but wasn't anything I had not done hundreds of times before. We quit about an hour later and went back to the motel, an hour or so later I took a shower. I noticed a spatter of tiny black spots on my forearms and tried to scrub them off w the washcloth. They did not go away. We had a few beers and had dinner at a restaurant nearby the motel. When we got back I was breaking out w itchy welts on the injured arm and other places and in an hour they were growing all over my body, neck, back, groin, legs, etc. Went to the local ER. Now I was swelling up and my throat was tight. The arm w the wound was swollen and covered w welts now, I swear you could almost watch them get larger. I told them about stabbing it on a small tree and they told me it was PS. They gave me epi and steroids and I went back to the motel and tried to sleep. The next morning I was about covered w itchy,red welts all over my body.It took 5 days for them and the horrible itching to subside. I learned that the poison in the sumac makes your body produce more of the poison that is spread by the blood moving around the body. Don't EVER stab yourself w a sharp,green Poison Sumac branch or trunk. I forgot, the sap in PS is pressured and when cut or broken it sprays out like an aerosol that's why I had the splatter of the black spots on my arms. The poison turns the skin black and it can't be removed unless you cut the skin off and that's not a good idea.
