I’ve heard it said that ideally every family should have a doctor and a lawyer in it. I’d maintain that when you own a house with a yard, it’s super handy to have a family member who knows their way around plants. It can save time, aggravation, and money. I mention this because in my family I am that person.
A case in point is the text message I got from my sister a few days ago. The photo she attached showed a small plant with copper-colored leaves in groups of three. “This is IT isn’t it???!!!!” she asked. “5 plants near the compost. Aiiiyiiyiii!”
At first glance, I was inclined to agree that some poison ivy had cropped up in my sister’s yard, but something didn’t seem quite right. I took a closer look but couldn’t see the detail I wanted. I asked my sister if she would take photos of some of the other plants. “Your plants look a little different from what I typically see,” I said. “Try a few more shots from a couple different angles if you can.”
In the initial photo she’d sent I’d noticed that the coppery color of the leaves had a lot of green in it and the venation was prominent — pale green against the rest of the leaf. Also, poison ivy leaves are only copper-colored when they first emerge. Based on the size of the leaves compared to other plant material in the photo, if this plant were poison ivy the leaves would have already turned green.
This morning a few more photos arrived from my sister, and I was able to see clearly that what she has growing up in her yard is not poison ivy. One of the plants has leaf groups in sets of five; this is not something you see in poison ivy, which has leaflets only in groups of three. Also, when I enlarged the photo, I could see that the leaf margins were finely serrated. Poison ivy leaf edges can vary a lot — from smooth to wavy to lobed, sometimes even deeply toothed — but they are never serrated.
So, one mystery was solved but it just led to another. If not poison ivy, what was this plant? I used the ID feature on my iPhone and got an instant result: wild sarsaparilla. I searched online for additional photos and got confirmation. Of course I sent immediate word to my sister, who was happy at the findings.
However, that left yet another mystery: Why hadn’t I ever seen this plant before? It’s native to a large area of Canada and the northeast quadrant of the U.S. which includes every place I’ve lived. Shouldn’t I have encountered it in the woods at some point?
According to what I found online, wild sarsaparilla (Aralia nudicaulis) inhabits dry to moist woods where it makes a tall groundcover, similar to Mayapple and goldenseal. The small, white flowers appear in May.
I learned that the rhizome was used as emergency food by First Nations People (Clough). The aromatic root was used to make a kind of root beer and can be made into a tea. It has also been used as a substitute for official sarsaparilla (Smilax ornate) flavoring.
Overall, wild sarsaparilla sounds like an easygoing plant. It can handle both sun and shade, requires an average amount of water, tolerates poorer, relatively dry soils, is good in well-drained moist soil, and is deer resistant. One possible disadvantage is that it can become aggressive. My sister said she’ll save a couple plants for me. I want to try them out in my own little patch of woods. I wouldn’t mind if the wild sarsaparilla were to crowd out the invasive, non-native garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolate).
Note: Poison ivy can look different depending on its location, which can make it challenging to identify.
Pam Baxter is an avid organic vegetable gardener who lives in Kimberton. Direct e-mail to pamelacbaxter@gmail.com, or send mail to P.O. Box 80, Kimberton, PA 19442.
