Smooth Sumac
Rhus glabra
Summary 6
Rhus glabra, the smooth sumac, (also known as white sumac, upland sumac, or scarlet sumac) is a species of sumac in the family Anacardiaceae, native to North America, from southern Quebec west to southern British Columbia in Canada, and south to northern Florida and Arizona in the United States and Tamaulipas in northeastern Mexico.
Smooth sumac has a spreading, open habit, growing up to 10 ft tall, rarely to 16 ft. The leaves are alternate, 12–20 in long, compound with 11–31 oppositely paired leaflets, each leaflet 2–4+1⁄4 in long, with a serrated margin. The leaves turn scarlet in the fall. The flowers are tiny, green, produced in dense erect panicles 4–10 in tall, in the spring, later followed by large panicles of edible crimson berries that remain throughout the winter.
Native Americans ate the young sprouts as a salad. The fruit is sour and contains a large seed, but can be chewed (to alleviate thirst) and made into a lemonade-like drink. Deer forage the twigs and fruit. In 2020, archaeologists unearthed a pipe at a dig in Central Washington state, showing chemical evidence that a Native American tribe had smoked Rhus glabra either alone or in a blend with tobacco, perhaps "for its medicinal qualities and to improve the flavor of smoke.
Sources and Credits
- (c) Ron Marusak, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by Ron Marusak
- (c) botanygirl, some rights reserved (CC BY), uploaded by botanygirl
- (c) Steve Harbula, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by Steve Harbula
- (c) John Boback, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by John Boback
- (c) thesnaguy, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), uploaded by thesnaguy
- Adapted by Tom Pollard from a work by (c) Wikipedia, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhus_glabra
More Info
- iNat taxon page
- Biodiversity Heritage Library
- BOLD Systems BIN search
- Calflora
- CalPhotos
- Detailed comparison with Ailanthus altissima
- eFloras.org
- Flora of North America (beta)
- Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF)
- Go Botany
- HOSTS - a Database of the World's Lepidopteran Hostplants
- IPNI (with links to POWO, WFO, and BHL)
- Jepson eFlora
- Maryland Biodiversity Project
- NatureServe Explorer 2.0
- OregonFlora.org
- SEINet Symbiota portals
- Tropicos
- USDA PLANTS database
- VASCAN by Canadensys
- World Flora Online
