I’m Umar Mycka, a horticulturist with 36 years of experience under my belt. I specialize in the removal of poison ivy (Toxicodendron radicans).

I travel throughout North America educating people on Poison Ivy and hold an annual conference on Poison Ivy that attracts participants from around the world. I remove poison ivy from anywhere it grows: backyards and movie sets, hedges, the expected and unexpected places.

Most people know that poison ivy is a plant usually found on the woodland edge and causes a terrible skin rash on contact. That’s only part of the story. There are many clans of poison ivy, some plants over 800 years old that could burn the skin off your body like acid.

Poison ivy is evolving: terribly powerful industrial pollutants affecting the environment are transforming poison ivy and the ecosystem it shares with all living creatures.

Weekly posts about poison ivy and its global impact will be published on our webpage. This will be a great resource for curious individuals and for teachers to use in their classrooms.

When I started to think of the range of interesting ways that I could highlight for people the evolving world of poison ivy, I was strongly cautioned by friends in creative arts not to bore my readers with tedious facts. Over the next few months, we developed the Partners 5 webcomic, available weekly on this site.

I welcome all correspondence. Please feel free to use our facebook contact page to write me personally.

Kindest regards,

Umar