For some people Fourth of July weekend in the country is a respite from cancer, a chance to stroll around the hot fields and lean over the green swirl of the river as it pushes itself downstream like Sisyphus straining against his rock, never stopping to rest against the shore.
What is it about standing beneath shady leaves, or watching miniature frogs leap into the water that erases memories of suffering?
I find myself almost trying to answer this question when suddenly I see the towering oak tree next to my cottage and am reminded once again of the fight against the pestilence of cancer.
Extending at least thirty feet up the trunk of the tree is a strangling nexus of poison ivy - old vines that must have been growing for decades, only this time a horrific change had taken place. All up and down the tree the poisonous triads of leaves were drooping lifelessly, tenderly weaving in the breeze like a body hanging from the gallows.
Death had come to the country, and I was the executioner. Last week I got up my nerve and cut the thick vines at the base of the tree. I had severed their supply line, had starved them of the nutrition they needed to flout their dominance over us, and now they withered like the miserable Harpies when finally driven away from tables laden with food for the innocent.
In some ways cutting off the supply of water to a thirty-foot high vine of poison ivy is like treating a patient with an anti-angiogenesis drug. The mechanism may be different, but the goals are the same - to kill the invader by depriving it of the very same nutrients we use to keep our healthy tissues alive.
Au revoir, my tender leaflets three - you shall not be missed.
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Actually, it will be missed.
Unlike humans, many animals don't have adverse reactions to poison ivy, according to an expert in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences. "In fact, for woodpeckers, warblers, vireos and many other birds, poison ivy's berries are a preferred food," says Jim Finley, professor of forest resources. "Deer, black bears, muskrats and rabbits eat the fruit, stems and leaves. For these animals, poison ivy's eye-catching early-fall color will act as a food marker rather than a poison warning."
And, it is quite beautiful in the fall. Look for it in a walk along a forest.
http://aginfo.psu.edu/News/october03/poisonivy.html
Plus, there's no parasitic relationship as there is with English Ivy. It just uses the tree for anchorage and does no harm to it.
Humans often think that they can do a better job than the natural world has done. Introducing non-natives was and is a major msitake, but I choose to leave poison ivy alone.
What the National Park Service says about poison ivy benefits:
http://www.nps.gov/phso/ipm/poisonivy.htm
Yes, you were the executioner. But, now you may gain an appreciation for the beauty of this native plant.
Marcia
Good analalogy, comparing cancer with poison ivy. Cutting it off at the roots, so all the growth along the twisting vine can wither and die. Very good.
Now for some calamine lotion.