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<span style="font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: calibri, sans-serif; line-height: normal;">Margaret Roach, NY Times, May 12, 2021</span><o:p style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit;"><span style="font-family: calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0);"> </span></o:p><br>
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<span style="font-family: calibri, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 11pt; background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0);">Pop quiz: What’s an ecologically important native flowering plant, found in every one of the continental United States but California,
that almost everyone hates?</span><span style="font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#333333"><o:p><span style="font-family: calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0);"> </span></o:p></span></p>
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<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0);">The qualifier “almost” makes room for the dissenting opinion about poison ivy from Susan K. Pell, a botanist and educator,
and the deputy executive director at the United States Botanic Garden in Washington.</span><span style="font-size: 1.25rem; font-family: Georgia, serif; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"><o:p><span style="font-family: calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0);"> </span></o:p></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0);">Her
career-long fascination with poison ivy is not based on a personal immunity to urushiol, the oily resin that is the active compound in all the plant’s parts — from seed and leaf to woody vine — even when it is dormant.</span></p>
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<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0);">Exposure to just 50 micrograms of urushiol, equivalent to less than a grain of
</span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0);">table salt, </span><span style="font-size: 1.25rem; font-family: Georgia, serif; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-width: 1pt; border-style: none; border-color: windowtext; padding: 0in; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0);">causes
a rash in 80 to 90 percent of adults</span></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0);">, according to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and
Health at the C.D.C.</span><span style="font-size: 1.25rem; font-family: Georgia, serif; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"><o:p><span style="font-family: calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0);"> </span></o:p></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Ms.
Pell, the former director of science at Brooklyn Botanic Garden, does get a mild rash from poison ivy, as she has since childhood. But that did not stop her from choosing the plant and its relatives as her research specialty in graduate school — or examining
related plants down to the molecular level, as she has done since then, teasing apart the who’s who.</span><o:p style="font-size: 12pt; font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-family: Calibri, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0);"> </span></o:p></p>
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Full story <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/12/realestate/poison-ivy.html">
here</a><o:p> </o:p></p>
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