Petey thinks it is just fantastic that poison ivy is part of the Bisbee streetscape. He’s a strange fellow.
Poison ivy is a sumac. Its botanical name is Rhus radicans and there are so many cool sumacs around the world. Many are known for their edible fruit in tea form or ground into a powder. Yum! But poison ivy doesn’t fall into the edible fruit category and I think that only in old Bisbee, Arizona will you find it leaning into the sidewalk to be brushed against. So caution my friends when wandering the steep sidewalks of that marvelous little town in the Mule Mountains.
Petey laments some invasive plant species and in particular a non-native grass that is spreading in the hills near his home.
What a fun discovery in the desert east of Douglas, Arizona. There is just something about these large spinescent shrubs in the buckthorn family,...
When I initially wrote this story I was using Lyman Benson’s The Cactus of Arizona as my reference and the queen of the night...
