Native Plants

Q. Who is Mr. Smarty Plants?

A: There are those who suspect Wildflower Center volunteers are the culpable and capable culprits. Yet, others think staff members play some, albeit small, role. You can torture us with your plant questions, but we will never reveal the Green Guru's secret identity.

Help us grow by giving to the Plant Database Fund or by becoming a member

Did you know you can access the Native Plant Information Network with your web-enabled smartphone?

Ask Mr. Smarty Plants

Ask Mr. Smarty Plants is a free service provided by the staff and volunteers at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.

Search Smarty Plants

See a list of all Smarty Plants questions

Please forgive us, but Mr. Smarty Plants has been overwhelmed by a flood of mail and must take a break for awhile to catch up. We hope to be accepting new questions again soon. Thank you!

Need help with plant identification, visit the plant identification page.

rate this answer

1 rating

Tuesday - July 30, 2013

From: Danbury, CT
Region: Northeast
Topic: Plant Identification
Title: Plant identification of plant with leaves like poison ivy
Answered by: Nan Hampton

QUESTION:

I would like to identify a plant whose leaves look like poison ivy, but the stem is white and has thorns. It is not thready. It was prevalent in overgrown garden beds of a house in Litchfield, CT. Thanks.

ANSWER:

If the plant was growing in garden beds, there is a very good chance that it is a non-native introduced cultivar and not a native of North America. If that is the case, then we aren't the ones to help you since our focus and expertise are with plants native to North America. Additionally, you haven't given me very much to help identify it. It would be good to know whether the plant is woody or not. Are the leaves arranged in threes like poison ivy or do the leaves just have the shape of poison ivy leaves? Does it have flowers? The Connecticut Botanical Society has a database, Gallery of Connecticut Wildflowers, where you can search for Connecticut wildflowers by flower color or by name. Their database includes some non-natives as well as natives and it includes some woody plant such as roses (native and non-native).

You can also search in our Native Plant Database by doing a COMBINATION SEARCH, choosing "Connecticut" from the Select State or Province slot and either "Herb", "Subshrub" or "Shrub" from Habit (general appearance). There are other characteristics you can choose such as Leaf Characteristics or Size Characteristics to narrow the list of possibilities to a manageable size.

Members of the Family Rosaceae (Rose Family) often have thorny stems and sometimes have their leaves in groups of three like poison ivy (e.g., those in the genera Rosa and Rubus). You can look through the various native plants in the rose family that grow in Connecticut by choosing "Family Rosaceae" from the list in the Family: slot in the green "Search native plant database:" rectangle on our Native Plant Database page. This will give you a list of more than 300 plants. You can limit the list of plants to those that grow in Connecticut by using the NARROW YOUR SEARCH option and choosing "Connecticut" from the Select State or Province slot and reduce the number of plants to a little more than 100 plants for you to look through.