Boston Ivy, Parthenocissis tricuspidata is Japanese and perhaps earned its' common name when that Massachusetts city became the point of entry for this Asiatic version of our Virginia Creeper.
It is a grape. From our point of view it is a poor grape. The berries are neither large or juicey enough for our table nor flavourful as wine. But it is a grape in the Vitaceae family. The fact that it is scarcely palatable should not have provoked someones' wrath enough for it to be labelled as poisonous; that overworked word.
I will agree that if you are unsure of any plant, then better be safe than sorry. That is fine if you are out on the land without a field guide, but surely when you get home there would be time to investigate further and certainly time enough before it gets listed in a book about poisonous plants.
The A.M.A. Handbook that I have been referencing, lists it only as a plant that contains irritant raphides. Now that I am certain is wrong, so that it should not have been in the book in the first place and explains why Boston Ivy does not get a mention in the revised (2007) edition.
However it is still on the Sick Kids' list and so gets the full fury of my wrath.
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