Batman and Poison Ivy's leaves

The weeds and botanical inaccuracies have also entered the world of comics. In 1966, Batman had a new nemesis, Poison Ivy, a botanist turned bad. (Brilliant!, says the botanist and author of this blog.) The poison ivy plant is one of the most obnoxious weeds of North America.

Issue 181 of DC comics Batman, introducing Poison Ivy for the first time (1966).
The leaves are very similar to true poison ivy, and definitely not English ivy leaves.
© DC Comics, fair use, Wikipedia.

"Poison Ivy is an enemy of Batman. She is depicted as one of the world's most prominent eco-terrorists. She is obsessed with plants, botany, and environmentalism. She uses toxins from plants and her own bloodstream for her criminal activities, which are usually aimed at protecting the natural environment." 
(link to this quote and more information about Poison Ivy at Batman Wiki)

Poison Ivy is of course named after one of North America's most troublesome weeds, the poison ivy (Toxicodendron radicans) in the family Anacardiaceae, same family as the tasty cashew nut and mango, as well as poison oak and poison sumac. This incredibly common woody plant, which can be a shrub or a liana, can cause absolutely horrible allergic dermatitis (skin reaction) with liquid-filled blisters and sores that can take weeks to heal. I know this first hand; I became allergic after moving to the US.

What is interesting with Batman's Poison Ivy is her leafy coverage, which has changed over the years.  Now, remember, most Americans know how poison ivy looks like, 'leaves in three, leave them be'.  In reality the three 'leaves' all belong to the same leaf, which is divided into three separate leaflets.

Poison ivy, leaves are divided into three separate leaflets,
with the middle leaflet stalked. Do not touch this plant!
Photo by Esculpio, public domain, link

But there is a sort of namesake, English (and Irish) ivy (Hedera helix and H. hibernica), which is an unrelated, non-allergenic European plant that has spread through horticulture across North America.  English ivy has simple leaves with three lobes.  Since the common names are similar, and both have green leaves and are climbing, people confuse these plants.

English ivy, with non-divided but lobed leaves. 
Photo by James H. Miller, USDA Forest Service, public domain, link

The subsequent illustrators of Batman's Poison Ivy girl has not always been able to make the distinction between poison ivy and English ivy, and as a result, there is a lot of confusion, especially among non-DC comics people making illustrations, costumes, and such when it comes to the right leaf to draw or use.   

Now, why is this important?  Well, accessorizing Poison Ivy with the wrong plant is kind of giving Luke Skywalker a sunflower to fight with instead of a lightsaber.  One is powerful and strong, the other is just pretty. We are not talking imaginary futuristic plants here, we are talking about living, existing species.  Nobody would name a character 'Lord Bear' and then let him wear a deer skull on his head, now would they? The same thing should matter for plants, especially toxic plants.

So, lets see who got it right? These are true poison ivy leaves.

1966, with correct leaves on.
(c) DC Comics, fair use, link.

Poison ivy on the cover of Joker's Asylum issue 1, 2008 (by DC Comics).
A little hard to tell on this, but there are three-divided leaves on the brown branch at the bottom
right and the leaves do not look like English Ivy at all.
(c) DC Comics, fair use, link. 

A closeup of above illustration.
Source, see above.

Poison Ivy in 1981, also with right leaves on.
© DC Comics, fair use, drawn by Irv Novick and Steve Mitchell, link.

And in the last ten years, things started to go wrong.
Here we have sometimes English ivy instead of Poison Ivy.

The leaves are clearly broad and have three lobes, so English ivy it is.
Promotional art for Batman: Gotham Knights vol. 15 (2001). Illustration by Brian Bolland.
Close-up below. © DC Comics, fair use, link.

English ivy, definitely.
(source, see full image above)

English ivy leaves on Poison Ivy.
© DC Comics (DC Universe online), fair use, link.

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English ivy abounds on Poison Ivy here.
© DC Comics, fair use, link.

If you are going to buy a Poison Ivy Halloween costume (for $300),
do you want it with English ivy leaves?  Here is one of them.
Screenshot from etsy, © darkpony designs, fair use, link.

 And some are just using some generic leaves, of uncertain species identities or are just unclear:

Poison Ivy in a DC comics from 2006, with leaves in her hair. Closeups below.
© DC Comics, fair use, link.

On the upper frame, she appears to have true poison ivy in her hair.

But on the bottom right frame the leaves suddenly have become more lobed. 
This still possibly could be poison ivy, but it is not typical shapes at all. Looks more like English ivy now.

 And, if you want to simplify, just remove all leaves and
then you don't have to worry about species identity:

Poison Ivy in the animated Batman movies.
© DC Comics, fair use, link.

The difference between stems, stalks, and petioles in rhubarb

This is the wonderful rhubarb season!  And for those of us that like the tart flavor, the red shiny stalks (or sometimes green) makes us imagine pies, fruit tarts, jams, and sauces...   Rhubarb is also showing up in spring issues of cooking magazines, radio shows, newspaper articles, and so on.

The inaccuracy that often is perpetuated with rhubarb is what we properly call the name the plant part we eat.  The 'stalks' we eat is the edible part of the otherwise toxic plant, and it is the leaf stalks.  The botanical, scientific name for this in English is 'petiole'.  This photo shows clearly how each stalk is connected to each leaf.

Rhubarb leaves with edible leaf stalks/petioles.
(cc) Dieter Weber, Wikipedia

The problem is that many times people inaccurately call it rhubarb stems.  A stem is a part of the plant that is a central shoot that holds the leaves, branches, flowers, and so on.  The true rhubarb stem is a hollow, nearly bamboo-like cylinder, which leads up to a terminal shoot that eventually develops flower buds. A stalk, on the other hand, can be both leaf stalk and the stem of a plant. Here is a photo of a rhubarb stem with flowers and small leaves:

Flowering rhubarb stem.
(cc) Septuagent on Flickr

Here are some examples of botanical inaccuracy when it comes to written online rhubarb information :

Wikipedia: "The use of rhubarb stems as food is a relatively recent innovation, first recorded in 17th century." 
{But Wikipedia gets it right in the beginning of the article on rhubarb.}

Royal Horticultural Society (RHS): "Rhubarb is a rhizomatous perennial whose stems (‘sticks’) grown as vegetable but used mainly as a dessert."   "Stems should be pulled rather than cut to prevent rotting of the remaining stump. "

Mark Bittman for The New York Times: "Buy the smallest stems you can find and use a vegetable peeler or paring knife to remove the stringy outer layer."

Apple's Siri ad: wrong poison oak

Ad for Siri and iPhone 4 in The Economist. 
Photo by Vilseskogen on Flickr, Creative Commons license.

In July 2012 Apple ran a print-ad featuring their new iPhone 4S and its Siri answering system, featuring the question "What does poison oak look like?" The photo above is from the ad printed on the back of the magazine The Economist.

The problem is that the answer Siri gave in the ad is not correct. That is not how poison oak (Toxicodendron diversilobum) looks like, that is how poison ivy (Toxicodendron radicans) looks like. Both are members of the Anacardiaceae family, which also includes mango, pistachio, cashew and rose pepper. There are also several other species of Toxicodendron in North America, all of them toxic.

In fact, the photo shown in the ad is the photo of poison ivy from Wikipedia. Both species are toxic and give horrible dermatitis, but they occur in different parts of the country. Generally speaking, if you are on the west coast of North America you have to look out for poison oak, and if you are east of the Rocky Mountains and in the eastern part of the United States, you better learn quickly how poison ivy looks like.CDC has a good overview of the different toxic North American species in Toxicodendron.

The mistake was covered by several media stories, here are some: Philadelphia Inquirer, CNet and Neowin.

The dermatitis caused by these species can be very severe, and this is a plant group we all should be able to identify. If you ask Siri to look up poison oak you get the correct answer, so the botanical inaccuracy most likely happened in the making of the ad.  Since these are some of the most common and most toxic species we have in North America, this mistake is not minor...

Royal Copenhagen: Flora Danica (example 2)

In this earlier post I explained the background of the Flora Danica series produced by Royal Copenhagen.  Here is another new design from 2012, listed as 'Stedmoderblomst' in the Danish catalog, and as 'Pansy' in the English version of the catalog.

 

 Source: Royal Copenhagen.

 
Stedmoderblomst is one of several species of violets (genus Viola, family Violaceae) that are common in Denmark, and the most common species of these are Viola arvensis and Viola tricolor.  None of the violets look the species depicted on this pattern, however.

Source: Royal Copenhagen.

This is how the violets look like:

Viola arvensis.

Source: Bernd Haynold via Wikimedia, Creative Commons.

Viola tricolor

Source: Incola via Wikimedia, Public Domain.

A detailed look at the plant depicted on this china shows that it is likely a monkshood (Aconitum, family Ranunculaceae). A search through the illustrations of Flora Danica provided by the Royal Library in Copenhagen yields this plate, Aconitum napellus, plate number 1698.

Aconitum napellus. Source: The Royal Library, Flora Danica.

So, from a dainty little violet, to one of the most toxic plants in Europe. 

The Aconitum illustration shows a stem with flowers and also a flower that is removed from the stem, and then pressed open and flattened.   Now, compare this illustration to the pattern painted onto the Royal Copenhagen plates and cups. 

 

 Source: Royal Copenhagen.

Not only is the species wrong, but the parts of the plant has been removed and then reassembled.  An opened, slightly destroyed flower has been reattached to a partial stem with flowers, The plant morphology has completely changed, and a new plant mutant has been created.  Of course this is perfectly fine in the creation of art, but not if you say that all the imagery is from historic Flora Danica and depict the plants of Denmark.