this is the plant the surveyor pointed out to me. It is growing on a vine along my back fence.

when you did the search for poison ivy you saw images of a leaf with three leaflets, that's where the saying "leaves of three, let them be" comes from.
The plant in your pic doesn't have three leaflets and is not a trailing, clinging vine. You have Pokeweed.

Pokeweed top. Virginia creeper (vine) bottom.

pokeweed is poisonous in every aspect ... unless you live down south and they eat it.. whats that all about.. lol ...

regardless it has pretty grape colored berries that children might think they can eat...

and if you let it go that far.. the birds will eat them.. and next year.. you will have a million of them ...

destroy it BEFORE it seeds... and use round up.. as it has a very deep long root that is very hard to dig up ...

basically the same story on the VC as to its aggressive seeding ... except i dont know that it is poisonous ... but it usually easy to pull up ...

there is a NAME THAT PLANT FORUM... should we ever fail here ...

ken

thanks guys!
But then why is my trash can always being moved?lol

Many people confuse Virginia Creeper and poison ivy for some reason. And they so often seem to grow in the same location together. You might want to double check to make sure that there aren't any vines with three leaflefs next to the garbage can.

It is important to know that VC is a plant that can cause a bad skin reaction in many people. Perhaps your mail carrier is one of those.

VC is a great plant. It will vine up tress, (it does not harm them) and turns a lovely red in the fall.

Linda

I grew up on a farm...this post had me doing some research. For...I always was told that Virginia Creeper was poison oak. But...they gave me false information. I was told...three leaves is poison ivy...and five leaves poison oak. So...somewhere someone got confused. Not sure if I got my information from a cousin or where it came from...but...all these years I have been misinformed.

They sell Virginia Creeper at the nurseries out here. Nice green decorative vine and the Phoebe birds like the berries in the fall. Have been around it all my life and never noticed any skin reactions or anything.

Not sure where I got that five leaves where poison oak. Clearly it isn't. Sadly I have dog tagged all Virginia Creeper to my husband as well as poison oak. Something I need to clear up. For he has ripped it out of clients homes for them...thinking and telling them it was poison oak. I've heard of Virginia Creeper. Never looked to see what it looked like though. Never to old to learn basics.

Maybe a label sign next to the area where the Virginia creeper is located. (To the poster)

Most vines are invasive, can choke plants and erode fences faster... I would get rid of most of them, with maybe a few exceptions (Evergreen Wisteria, Passion Flower) in controlled spaces..

I probably wouldn't let any grow on live trees, though.

Here is a link that might be useful: Evergreen Wisteria

Virginia creeper seedlings' first and second true leaves often have only 3 leaflets -- which is scary! (Occasionally I see one with 4 leaflets.) But very soon they are all 5's.

If you see a very small plant with 3 PI-looking leaflets, it can help to know that Virginia creeper's dicotyledons are heart-shaped, while PI's dicots are long ovals (essentially identical to violet [Viola sororia, Common Blue Violet] dicots).

This post was edited by missingtheobvious on Wed, Jul 2, 14 at 23:50

"Most vines are invasive..." That is just scaremongering and has to be challenged. If a vine is native, however vigorous it is, it cannot be definition be invasive. Furthermore, if you garden somewhere with tiny plots, like I do, vines (we call them creepers) are vital to enable us to garden every inch of our space including the vertical areas. All it needs is some knowledge in the choice plants and sensible maintenance regarding pruning and training to have living walls around your garden. Solanum crispum 'Glasnevin'. {{gwi:389336}}

The back of my house with Parthenocissus henryana, a relation of VC, before a recent haircut:

Flora, that's a nice Solanum crispum, 'Glasnevin'. I've never seen one before.
Is that Fatshedera next to it? That's a creeper that won't get out of bounds. Very easy to control. Most vines are. You just have to get to know them.
I wish I could go to the UK again. I enjoyed my three weeks there in 2000.
Mike

Yes, Mike. That's a Fatshedera I rescued from a rubbish bin at work.

I pulled Virginia Creeper out of my fig tree yesterday with my bare hands, no rash or itching whatsoever.

There's another weedy vine around here called Peppervine, and many folks think it's poisonous too.