3 September 2013
In July I took photos of sumacs along the Montour Trail but didn’t identify the species and assumed these first two were staghorn sumac. Wrong!
As I started to write this article I examined the photos and noticed a big difference between them. The red fruit spike above is fuzzy. The one below is smooth. Not only that, you can see that the stems on the top one are also fuzzy but the stems below are smooth.
In southwestern Pennsylvania we have three common sumac species that bear pointed red fruit clusters:
- Staghorn sumac (Rhus typhina), at top, has fuzzy fruit and stems and is named “staghorn” because the fuzzy fruit spike resembles a stag’s horn in velvet.
- Smooth sumac (Rhus glabra), above, is smooth just like its name.
- Shining sumac (Rhus copallina) is easily identified by its winged stems.
I haven’t seen Shining Sumac lately so here’s a photo from Wikimedia Commons. See how the stem has wings (like wingstem) between the leaflets?
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There are two more plants we call “sumac” whose leaves resemble these plants but they aren’t in the genus Rhus:
- Poison-sumac (Toxicodendron vernix) is in the cashew family (as is Rhus) but it’s closely related to poison ivy and causes the same rash. Its stems are smooth, like smooth sumac, but its flowers and fruit are not in dense spikes. Fortunately poison sumac only grows in swamps and bogs so you’d have to go out of your way to touch it. Click here for a photo.
- And finally there’s a plant we call “sumac” which isn’t related at all. Tree of Heaven (Ailanthus altissima) is an invasive tree from China with compound leaves that resemble sumac. However its leaflets are notched, especially at the base, and the tree produces seeds instead of a fruit spike. Notice the notches on the leaflets and the heavy cascade of seeds in this Wikimedia photo. This is NOT sumac. It grows anywhere, even in abandoned parking lots.
Three real Rhus sumacs and two imposters.
(photos by Kate St. John except where noted. Click on the Wikimedia photos to see their originals)
Thank you so much! Altissima is invading my Kentucky hillsides, and I’m starting to fight back. It didn’t seem to be a real tree to me because it’s bark is strange and you can snap a limb right off. The baby leaves have a deep purple in them for a short time, and they smell very distinct when snapped or cut. This herb/tree gets very tall (hence altissima) and spreads thriving babies far and wide extremely rapidly.
I am writing an article on sumacs for the Santa Fe New Mexican and ran across this blog, thank you for your share with the different varieties. I’m sure a lot of East Coasters can get them confused. They interesting plants!
Know that this was written years back but had to shout out “East Coast Sand hill here, born & bred!” and YES. It is confusing. Lived in my area entire childhood(rural southern county on the line) & only feared poison ivy. Lived other places for 20 years & returned. Same wood but on lake….that’s dam was broken for maybe 5 yrs & since rebuilt and bed was flooded with basically a forest growing (except what residents could cut & haul). NOW I’ve met Sumac boys & girl and saw the deed once with baby (couldnt tell yet through binoculars and that’s the way it all looked to me!!) beside. Its not invaded but sent alarm up to neighbors. We’ll see (and I had it. Awful. 2mths to heal and I’m not sure it wasn’t just my dog/fur?. Wish us luck.
I was wondering what kinda plant shoemake and do you have a photo
Sandra, I’m not sure what you’re asking. Perhaps auto-correct messed up your message?
I have heard sumac called shoemake or shumake here in Tennessee before.
You are min-informed about Poison Sumac. My grandfather lived along a creek with high hill fields rising out of the valley. Those hilly dry fields where he pastured his cows and horses were filled with Poison Sumac! It was a challenge to walk that way to get to his home because of all those little poisonous trees.
In exactly what way was the author of this post misinformed? Don’t tell someone the information they’re saying is wrong/incorrect and not correct them.
Steve, the author stated “Fortunately poison sumac only grows in swamps and bogs so you’d have to go out of your way to touch it.” Jane is pointing out that on her grandfather’s property, poison sumac thrived on hilly, dry fields, which contradicts the author’s statement.
As a child growing up in rural areas, many adults just told children all sumac was poisonous. Which only served to confuse, as we certainly got rashes from poison ivy, but never the sumac. Truth was poison “sumac” doesn’t grow anywhere in those areas. Maybe a similar situation?
Amy, Wikipedia says “Poison sumac grows exclusively in wet and clay soils, usually in swamps and peat bogs, in the eastern United States and extreme southeast Canada.” The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center at Wildflower.org says of poison sumac. “Native Habitat: Wet soil of swamps, bogs, seepage slopes, and frequently flooded areas; in shady hardwood forests.” [at https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=tove ]
So something is amiss. Maybe the area where it grew was a moist seepage slope -or- the plant name was incorrect.
Just another reason to love a ?. My Papa raised & loved goats too. I grew up next door and every afternoon (& twice as long on Fridays?) my Pa and my uncle would sit on buckets just talking about the days events & everyone of the goats would sit & lean on him & just hang out! As soon as they stood up theyd RUSH off!! Very exciting indeed for this kid tight here!! The best memories!! So thank you for the reminder.????
We live outside of Atlanta. We have a creek, but no bogging areas White sumac(shining and poison) lives here as well as the red (Staghorn). I have been fighting the poisonous kind for several years. I cut it at the base of the tree, paint roundup on it and pray–a lot. I was told to use round-up full strength on the trunk and that will finish it off. I have been using the bottles recommended mixture.
Don’t use Roundup. It causes Cancer. I got non Hodgkin’s lymphoma from it. There is no cancer ANYWHERE in my family’s history. We went back 100 years.
So…The red staghorn sumac is Not Poisonous at any point???
Correct, staghorn sumac is not poisonous https://www.nny360.com/artsandlife/staghorn-sumac-a-beneficial-plant/article_6b0300f3-10ed-54c9-9fbe-6edd7f967590.html
No, it isn’t.
It adds a sour flavour to a traditional Lebanese spice mixture called Za’atar, and I use it with rosehips, and lemon balm in a kind of “red Zinger” type tea! 🙂
I’ve made tea from the crushed berries… very lemony
THIS was my exact reaction! No, ma’am! Its actually very pretty.
No sumac with red berries is poisonous. Staghorn, Smooth, an Shining(winged) Sumac are all not poisonous.
I’ve been trying to research what type of tree surrounds our home here in southwestern Pennsylvania. Your article was most helpful in identifying it as Staghorn Sumac. I think it’s beautiful. Thanks so much.
Thanks for helping me with all of the various types of Sumac!
Ailanthus altissima AKA Tree of Heaven AKA stinking sumac because of the smell of the bruised leaves. Personally I think it smells like rotten peanut butter.
I have successfully gotten rid of it by digging up the roots as much as possible, sometimes up to (down to) two feet below the soil. Then I cut or mash up the top of the remaining root to help pathogens get in. Finally I put a cup or two of salt around it before filling in the hole. The salt will not harm any plant roots higher up in the soil.
I also have it on my property.
Amy, I have what I’m told is poison sumac growing in my yard. It has leaves that look like the poison sumac but doesn’t have any type of flowers. I can’t find a picture of it anywhere. I have been fighting these plants for 13 years now. I actually have an outbreak of blisters on my skin right now. Can you help me identify this plant?
People call a lot of things “poison sumac” but are incorrect. People also often misidentify poison Ivy as poison sumac.
Most sumac on the east coast is actually edible (the berries as noted for lemonade and zaatar)! But imposters (ailanthus and poison Ivy) abound. Common names confuse people as well. Examine pix of Rhus sp and what you have. It’s probably poison Ivy
Poison oak and poison Ivy are toxicodendron sp
All the folks talking about poison sumac in dry plains areas probably have poison oak?
To Margaret Michels. If you scroll up to where it talks about poison sumac, you can click the plant name (a link) that will take you to a article about it with good photo of its leaves, it grows white berries that hang down ward unlike the staghorn or the smooth sumac.
So the staghorn supposed to be fuzzy? It’s all over here in western Massachusetts. I must have seen some smoothe in Vermont so I thought the staghorn was too late to use. I want to make the spice for zaatar. How does that work with the fuzzies? Is it edible it will it wash off?
Poison sumac is all over Northeastern Texas and it almost killed me. I had 103.8 degree fever for over 4 days and was the worst painful experience in my life!
Can shining sumac’s berries be used also in lemonade?