Plant of the Week
Smooth Sumac
Latin: Rhus glabra
Fall has arrived with its many resplendent glories. The changing pallet of
autumnal foliage delights and amazes us each October and, even the most jaded
amongst us cannot help but be uplifted by the beauty and the cooler temperatures
of the season.
While trees are the poster children for fall, a number of smaller plants add
significantly to the display. Of these, smooth sumac (Rhus glabra), is
one of the most beautiful but unappreciated plants of the season.
Sumacs get lonely, so you never see them growing alone. Along Interstate 40
between Conway and Fort Smith are half-acre size thickets where the various
colonies abut against one another, showing slightly different plant heights,
flowering time and fall foliage colors. Each colony represents a clone, all
arising from a common rootstock.
Sumacs are pioneer species that established in the rights of way in the 1970s
when the Interstate was completed, slowly occupying more ground each season.
Spread of these colonies is by means of an underground rhizome that sprawls in
every direction as soil conditions and competition permit. In the productive
soils of Indiana, colonies spread at a rate of about three feet a year, but in
the poorer soils of the Interstate median, the rate of expansion is undoubtedly
slower.
The oldest and tallest plants are in the center of the colony, but they
seldom exceed 10 feet high. The16-inch long leaves are pinnately compound with
the 15 to 25 leaflets arrayed opposite one another down the central rachis.
In the fall, these leaves turn to shades of orange and red, but along the way
they show many intermediate shades. Individual leaflets make their own decision
about the transition from summer to fall, so patches of green admix with the
autumnal colors in a crazy quilt pattern.
The historian Francis Parkman wrote in The Oregon Trail of his 1846
adventures traveling with a band of Sioux as they hunted buffalo with bow
and arrow on the plains of present day Wyoming. The peace pipes he shared with
the chiefs of the tribe were a blend of sumac and tobacco, with sumac the
principle ingredient.
Sumacs are dioecious, meaning that individual colonies will be either male or
female. Flowers appear at the end of the branches in early summer as 6-inch
tall, yellow-green, ice cream cone shaped panicles. Female plants then produce
the familiar head of maroon berries in the fall. These berries, while hardly
fleshy, can be harvested and used to make a reasonably tasty pink lemonade-like
tea.
One reference suggests using an old washing machine agitator to beat the
berries around for half an hour or so to extract the vitamin C and flavor.
Strain the resultant mash through a bit of cheesecloth; add sugar and you are
ready to drink.
This is one of the most common plants in the United States, appearing in
every one of the lower 48 states, and in almost every county of the eastern
states. But, on the whole, Americans tend to be indifferent to our native plants
so sumac is almost never seen in a planted landscape. Occasionally, the
laceleafed staghorn sumac (R. typhina 'Laciniata') will be grown, but
almost never will we see colonies of the others spreading across the landscape.
Should you wish to try, the plant is easily transplanted from an existing
clump by digging up a bit of the rhizome. Don't bother trying to move any of the
top; just move the roots. The first couple years you won't have much to show for
your efforts, but in a few years the colony will start to expand.
They are important wildlife food with young shoots relished by deer and the
seeds eaten by turkey, quail and a number of songbirds. Sumac is intolerant of
shade, but otherwise is not the least bit demanding.
By: Gerald Klingaman, retired
Extension Horticulturist
- Ornamentals
Extension News -
October 10, 2003
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