Ellisia, Hackberry and Poison Ivy

Most of us who take a stroll through the woods don't bother to learn to know what it is we are looking at, only that it's nice trees and birds and plants. Here is a little insignificant plant that you may have walked by and not noticed. It's part of the whole ecosystem just the same, and now you know what it is. It's ellisia (Ellisia nyctelea). The plant pictured with it is poison ivy.

Link to Ellisia nyctelea:

Link to earlier post on poison ivy;

This patch of ellisia is easy to find. It's in Purdue Hort Park at the foot of this hackberry (Celtis occidentalis) tree. Some of the trees in Hort Park were labeled years ago, and this is one of them.

Link to hackberry tree:

The poison ivy that you see amongst the ellisia is climbing up the hackberry tree. The Miami language word for poison ivy translates to "it climbs trees".

This hackberry tree is along the gravel road that you can enter Hort Park on, go down State St. past McCormick Road and take the next right (north) onto the gravel road.

These pictures were taken May 2, 2009.