D ERMATITIS, caused by contact with approximately 460 plants and woods, has been reported in the medical literature. Of these plants, poison ivy, oak, and sumac are the most frequent offenders. Patients who have a dermatitis on exposed surfaces of the skin following possible exposure to shrubs or woods usually allude to one of these three plants as the specific cause of their skin eruption. Very few persons, however, are capable of recognizing these common plants and there is considerable confusion regarding the mode of contracting and treating these kinds of dermatitis. Many patients remark that they have poison ivy each year-brought on by merely walking near a plant. Others state that at one time they were quite sensitive to poison ivy but that they cured themselves and prevented repeated attacks by eating the leaves of the plant. Certainly there is a great deal of confusion regarding these skin conditions.