Summary ⁶

Rhus aromatica, the fragrant sumac, is a deciduous shrub in the family Anacardiaceae native to Canada and the United States from southeast Ontario to Vermont down into central Florida to west Texas up through Nebraska over to southern Wisconsin back to Ontario. It grows in upland open woods, fields, barrens, and rocky cliffs.

Fragrant sumac is a woody plant with a rounded form that grows to around 2 - 5 ft tall and 5 - 10 ft wide. The plant develops yellow flowers in clusters on short lateral shoots in March through May. The flower is a small, dense inflorescence that usually opens before the plant's leaves do. Pollinated flowers develop clusters of 0.2 in to 0.3 in hairy red drupes containing a single nutlet during June through August. The fruits become an important winter food for birds and small mammals that can remain on the plant until spring if not eaten.

The plant's alternate compound leaves have three leaflets that vary in shape, lobing, and margination. The unstalked leaflets are ovate to rhomboid, more or less wedge-shaped at the base, coarsely-toothed and usually shiny glabrous above. The terminal leaflet is 1.2 in to 2.6 in long. Fragrant sumac's three-leafleted lobed leaves resemble those of its relative, poison ivy (Toxicodendron radicans). However, poison ivy's central leaflet has a stem, whereas fragrant sumac's does not.

Sources and Credits

1. (c) Kingsbrae Garden, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://www.flickr.com/photos/32598399@N00/2578347284
2. (c) Chuck Sexton, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by Chuck Sexton
3. (c) Jesús Niño C., some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by Jesús Niño C.
4. (c) David Bygott, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://www.flickr.com/photos/86666094@N00/4497012685
5. (c) Matt Berger, some rights reserved (CC BY), uploaded by Matt Berger
6. Adapted by Tom Pollard from a work by (c) Wikipedia, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhus_aromatica

More Info

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