Flowers of a male Poison Ivy Plant

Did you know there were girl and boy Poison Ivy (Toxicodendron radicans) plants? The plant shown above, and to the right below, is growing alongside our driveway, and it is clearly male. Its prominent yellow stamens are full of pollen. The flowers are tiny, less than 1/2 inch in diameter, and the corolla is a pale green.

Female (left) and male (right) flowers of Poison Ivy

I found a female plant growing on a pine tree in an Atlanta suburb. The photograph above shows the female flowers on the left. The difference is quite striking when you compare them with the male flowers in the right half of the photograph. The females have a prominent pistil, but only small underdeveloped stamens.

This photograph above shows the berries that develop from the female flowers after they are pollinated. They are at first green, but will turn gray or white later in the year, I will try to get some photographs when they mature. As of this date, they are still green.You can read much more about Poison Ivy in one of my earlier posts: https://www.gkochert.com/poison-flowers/