Tag: allergen

  • Poison Ivy (and Its Nasty Cousins)

    The PlantsToxicodendron (meaning “poison tree”) is a genus of plants that aren’t technically poisonous in the sense that they’d kill you if you ate them — they’re skin irritants thanks to a highly allergenic compound called urushiol in their sap. Poison ivy isn’t technically an ivy, either, because it’s in the Anacardiaceae family (along with…