Fragrant Sumac
Scientific Name: Rhus aromatica Aiton var. serotina (Greene) Rehder
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| General Information | |
|---|---|
| Usda Symbol | RHARS |
| Group | Dicot |
| Life Cycle | Perennial |
| Growth Habits | Shrub |
| Native Locations | RHARS |
Plant Guide
Uses
Wildlife: The fruit is an important winter food for birds, including turkey, ruffed grouse, robins, and flickers, and for various small mammals (e.g., raccoon, opossum, chipmunk). The foliage is relatively unpalatable to most species of wildlife and domestic livestock. Thickets of fragrant sumac provide cover for many species of birds and small mammals. Conservation: Fragrant sumac is not widely used for landscape plantings, probably because of its relatively small size, but it is used as a ground cover, especially on banks. The plants are hardy and can grow in sun or partial shade. The main ornamental feature is the orange to red fall foliage color. Several cultivars have been selected – mostly for variation in growth form. Fragrant sumac also has been used for rehabilitating disturbed sites such as banks, cuts, and fills. Ethnobotanic: American Indians made a tart drink (“Indian lemonade”) from the ripe fruits of fragrant sumac (larger-fruited Rhus species provide a larger quantity of the same substance). The bark of all sumacs has been used as an astringent, and leaves and bark can be used for tanning leather because of the high tannin content. Various Indian tribes have used fragrant sumac in treatment for various illnesses and health problems. The leaves, mixed with tobacco, were used as a smoking mixture.
Status
Please consult the PLANTS Web site and your State Department of Natural Resources for this plant’s current status, such as, state noxious status and wetland indicator values. Oklahoma Biological Survey
Description
General: Sumac family (Anacardiaceae). Straggling to upright native shrubs 0.5-2(-2.5) meters tall (rarely tree-like), forming colonial thickets of up to 10 feet spread, suckering from the roots, the branches slender ascending, puberulent, glabrate, or densely pilose; buds naked, tiny, yellow, hairy, surrounded by a raised, circular leaf scar. Leaves: deciduous, alternate, compound with 3 leaflets, variable in shape, lobing, and margin, the leaflets unstalked, ovate to rhomboid, more or less wedge-shaped at the base, coarsely-toothed, usually shiny-glabrous above, the terminal leaflet 3-6.5 cm long; summer foliage green to glossy blue-green, turning orange to red or purple in the fall. Flowers: yellow, in small, dense inflorescences on short lateral shoots, opening before the leaves, bisexual and unisexual, both types borne on the same plant (the species polygamodioecious); male (staminate) flowers in yellowish catkins, female (pistillate) flowers in bright yellow, short panicles at the ends of branches. Fruits: 5-7 mm in diameter, bright red at maturity and densely hairy, containing a single nutlet 3.8-4.5 mm long, in terminal clusters. The common name “sumac” is from the Middle English for related tree. The leaves are fragrant or at least odorous. Variation within the species: three varieties are currently recognized, based on differences in geography, leaf shape, and pubescence of stems, leaves, and fruits. Var. aromatica occurs over nearly the whole range of the species. Rhus aromatica var. arenaria (Greene) Fern. – restricted to Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. Rhus aromatica var. serotina (Greene) Rehd. – the western segment, occurring from South Dakota to Texas and eastward to Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, and Illinois. It apparently intergrades with forms of Rhus trilobata where their ranges meet in the Great Plains (mainly from Texas to South Dakota). Distribution: Fragrant sumac is native to most of the US east of the Rocky Mountains, from Ontario and western Quebec, Massachussetts and New Hampshire to Florida and west to the Great Plains in Texas to South Dakota. For current distribution, please consult the Plant Profile page for this species on the PLANTS Web site.
Adaptation
Fragrant sumac is common along the forested eastern margins of the Great Plains and in open or otherwise disturbed sites on the margins of the Gulf Coast prairie. It grows at a range of sites including open rocky woodlands, valley bottoms, lower rocky slopes, and roadsides. Flowering: March-May, usually before the leaves expand; fruiting: June-August.
Establishment
Fragrant sumac reproduces from seed or clonally via root suckers. It is a pioneer species, establishing rapidly from seed after heavy disturbance, particularly fire. Browsing by deer may be responsible for rapid early removal of mature fruits; birds are the primary dispersal later. Individual plants may live about 20-30 years; clones can live substantially longer. Fragrant sumac sprouts vigorously after fire and can be propagated from root cuttings. Seed dormancy results from the presence of a hard, impermeable seed coat. Fire scarifies seeds, promoting germination; various artificial methods of pretreatment have been tested, including sulfuric acid, and hot water soaks, mechanical scarification, and cold treatment. Pretreated sumac seeds generally begin germination within 10-20 days. The resistant seed coats probably allow the seeds to remain viable for several years in the humus layer, as do those in seeds of some other Rhus species, allowing re-establishment through seed progeny when conditions are favorable for germination and growth.
Management
Fragrant sumac reportedly sprouts vigorously after fire in the southern Great Plains, and the primary mode of colonization after disturbance is through sprouting from the adventitious-bud root crown, Cultivars, Improved and Selected Materials (and area of origin) These plant materials are readily available from commercial sources, Use soil moisture sensors to measure the soil moisture of Fragrant Sumac., Contact your local Natural Resources Conservation Service (formerly Soil Conservation Service) office for more information, Look in the phone book under ”United States Government,” The Natural Resources
Conservation
Service will be listed under the subheading “Department of Agriculture.”
References
Barkley, F.A. 1937. A monographic study of Rhus and its immediate allies in North and Central America, including the West Indies. Ann. Missouri Bot. Gard. 24:265-498. Brizicky, G.K. 1962. The genera of Anacardiaceae in the Southeastern United States. J. Arnold Arbor. 43:359-375. Brizicky, G.K. 1963. Taxonomic and nomenclatural notes on the genus Rhus (Anacardiaceae). J. Arnold Arbor. 44:60-80. Frankel, E. 1991. Poison ivy, poison oak, poison sumac, and their relatives. The Boxwood Press, Pacific Grove, Calif. For review see Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 120(1):76. 19xx. Gilbert, E.F. 1966. Structure and development of sumac clones. Amer. Midl. Nat. 75:432-445. Hardin, J.W. & L.L. Phillips 1985. Hybridization in eastern North American Rhus (Anacardiaceae). ASB Bull. 32(3):99-106. Johnson, T. 2000. Rhus aromatica. Herbweb.com. [http://www.herbweb.com/index.html] Oklahoma Biological Survey 2000. Rhus aromatica Ait. IN Catalog of woody plants of Oklahoma. Norman, Oklahoma. 20sep2000. <http://www.biosurvey.ou.edu/shrub/rhara3.htm > Tirmenstein, D. 1987. Rhus aromatica. IN: W.C. Fischer (compiler). The fire effects information system [Data base]. U.S.D.A., Forest Service, Intermountain Research Station, Intermountain Fire Sciences Laboratory, Missoula, MT. <http://www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/> Uttal, L.J. 1984. An environmental race of Rhus aromatica Ait. in western Virginia. Jeffersonia 15:75-76. Xiaojie L., J.M. Baskin, & C.C. Baskin 1999. Contrasting dispersal phenologies in two fleshy-fruited congeneric shrubs, Rhus aromatica Ait. and Rhus glabra L. (Anacardiaceae). Canad. J. Bot. 77:976-988.
Fact Sheet
Alternate Names
Aromatic sumac, lemon sumac, polecat sumac Uses: The fruit is an important winter food for birds, including turkeys, ruffed grouse, robins and flickers, and for various small mammals. The foliage is relatively unpalatable due to the high tannin content of the leaves. Fragrant sumac root was used by Native Americans to produce a yellow dye, and the berries in an acidic tasting beverage. The Cheyenne dried leaves of fragrant sumac and mixed them with tobacco, red willow dogwood and bearberry to make a smoking mixture. The leaves and bark were used for tanning leather because of the high tannin content of these plants. The Native American tribes also used the sumac’s astringent power to stop bleeding in all forms from wounds to hemorrhage after child birth. It may also be grown for landscape purposes and for its orange to red fall foliage color.
Status
Please consult the PLANTS Web site and your State Department of Natural Resources for this plant’s current status (e.g., threatened or endangered species, state noxious status, and wetland indicator values).
Description and Adaptation
Adaptation
Adaptation
Figure 2. Fragrant sumac distribution from USDA-NRCS PLANTS Database. Description: Fragrant sumac belongs to the Anacardiaceae family. A straggling to upright native shrub 6 to 8 feet tall rarely tree like in appearance. This shrub occurs singly or in dense thickets that may be connected by rhizomes. Root systems are deep and extensively branched. Plants are deciduous, woody, spreading, often forming clumps or thickets. Crown diameter often exceeds height and may be more that 30 feet across. Stems are numerous, woody, spreading, highly branched, and brown and pubescent when young, but develop a gray bloom with age. Leaves are 1 to 3 inches long, trifoliate, petiolate, and puberulant beneath. Leaves are alternate and compound with three leaflets which are variable in shape, lobing, and margins. Plants of fragrant sumac are polygamo-dioecious, thus functionally dioecious, but having a few perfect flowers on an otherwise staminate or pistillate plant. Flowers are yellow in small dense inflorescences on short lateral shoots, male (staminate) flowers in yellowish catkins, female (pistillate) flowers in bright yellow, short panicles at the branches ends. Fruits are orange red, sticky, berry
Establishment
Fruits can be harvested in the summer and early fall. Fruit of Rhus aromatic is synchronous and does not support a staggered fruit ripening pattern. Fruits are collected by hand or by flailing the stems after leaf drop in the fall. Harvested seed are macerated and flushed with water to remove pulp and debris. The remaining materials, including the seeds, are dried and fanned to remove loose debris. There are approximately 20,000 cleaned seeds per pound. Recommended standards of seed for purchase is 40 percent germination and 95 percent purity. Cleaned seed can remain viable under cool, dry storage for up to five years. Seed germination is restricted by a hard impervious seed coat and embryo dormancy. Erratic seed germination is a factor in this shrub not being more extensively planted. Both forms of dormancy vary widely among seed lots. Seedcoat permeability may be increased by a 20 minute to 2 hour sulfuric acid scarification. A wet prechill for 30 to 120 days is required to release embryo dormancy. Embryo dormancy can also be broken in fragrant sumac by treatment with gibberellic acid (GA3) at 500 to 1000 parts per million (ppm) concentrations.
Management
Seedlings grow moderately well, but young plants are not highly competitive with herbaceous plants, Scarified seed should be planted in the fall to provide a wet cool stratification period; scarified seed planted in the spring must have a cold, wet period or be treated with GA3, Seed should be planted at a ½ inch depth in a dry, course textured soil, Seeding rates of 2 to 4 pounds per acre are recommended depending on row spacing, It may be broadcast on rough surfaces or in pits, If drilled the seed should be planted with other slow growing shrub species that provide some distance from aggressive fast growing species, In the bareroot nursery trade seed should be planted ½ inch deep, A seeding density of 25 viable seed units per linear foot of row is recommended, Beds should be mulched to prevent excessive drying, Plants may be lifted as 1-0 or 2-0 stock, depending on their growth rate, Field transplanted seedlings should be at least 8 to 11 inches tall, Use soil moisture sensors to measure the soil moisture of Fragrant Sumac., Established seedlings are hardy and resilient,
Pests and Potential Problems
The species is susceptible to vascular wilt caused by Fusarium oxysporum. A sumac feeding psyllid (Calophya triozomiwa) has been collected on fragrant sumac in many locations.
Control
Please contact your local agricultural extension specialist or county weed specialist to learn what works best in your area and how to use it safely. Always read label and safety instructions for each control method. Trade names and control measures appear in this document only to provide specific information. USDA NRCS does not guarantee or warranty the products and control methods named, and other products may be equally effective. Cultivars, Improved, and Selected Materials (and area of origin) Fragrant sumac can be found in the commercial nursery trade. ‘Konza’ is a 1980 release from the Manhattan Plant Materials Center in Manhattan, KS. Konza was a cooperative release with the Kansas Agricultural Experiment Station, Nebraska Agricultural Experiment Station, Nebraska Game and Parks Commission and the Kansas Fish and Game Commission. The original germplasm for the release was collected on a limestone breaks site south of Manhattan, KS. After initial evaluation and selection at the Manhattan PMC, it was field tested in Oklahoma, Nebraska, and Kansas for over 10 years. Konza proved to be superior in growth form, disease resistance, adaptability and wildlife cover potential over other similar standards of comparison. Prepared By Richard L. Wynia, USDA – NRCS Manhattan Plant Materials Center, Manhattan, KS.
Plant Traits
Growth Requirements
| Temperature, Minimum (°F) | -13 |
|---|---|
| Adapted to Coarse Textured Soils | Yes |
| Adapted to Fine Textured Soils | Yes |
| Adapted to Medium Textured Soils | Yes |
| Anaerobic Tolerance | None |
| CaCO3 Tolerance | Medium |
| Cold Stratification Required | Yes |
| Drought Tolerance | High |
| Fertility Requirement | Low |
| Frost Free Days, Minimum | 170 |
| Hedge Tolerance | Medium |
| Moisture Use | Low |
| pH, Maximum | 8.0 |
| pH, Minimum | 5.0 |
| Planting Density per Acre, Maxim | 2700 |
| Planting Density per Acre, Minim | 700 |
| Precipitation, Maximum | 55 |
| Precipitation, Minimum | 16 |
| Root Depth, Minimum (inches) | 24 |
| Salinity Tolerance | Low |
| Shade Tolerance | Intolerant |
Morphology/Physiology
| Bloat | None |
|---|---|
| Toxicity | None |
| Shape and Orientation | Rounded |
| Nitrogen Fixation | None |
| Resprout Ability | Yes |
| Active Growth Period | Spring and Summer |
| C:N Ratio | High |
| Coppice Potential | Yes |
| Fall Conspicuous | Yes |
| Fire Resistant | No |
| Flower Color | Yellow |
| Flower Conspicuous | No |
| Foliage Color | Green |
| Foliage Porosity Summer | Moderate |
| Foliage Porosity Winter | Porous |
| Fruit/Seed Color | Red |
| Low Growing Grass | No |
| Lifespan | Long |
| Leaf Retention | No |
| Known Allelopath | No |
| Height, Mature (feet) | 5.0 |
| Height at 20 Years, Maximum (fee | 5 |
| Growth Rate | Slow |
| Growth Form | Multiple Stem |
| Fruit/Seed Conspicuous | Yes |
| Foliage Texture | Coarse |
Reproduction
| Vegetative Spread Rate | None |
|---|---|
| Small Grain | No |
| Seedling Vigor | Low |
| Seed Spread Rate | Slow |
| Seed per Pound | 49000 |
| Fruit/Seed Persistence | Yes |
| Propagated by Tubers | No |
| Propagated by Sprigs | No |
| Propagated by Sod | No |
| Propagated by Seed | Yes |
| Propagated by Corm | No |
| Propagated by Container | Yes |
| Propagated by Bulb | No |
| Propagated by Bare Root | Yes |
| Fruit/Seed Period End | Fall |
| Fruit/Seed Period Begin | Summer |
| Fruit/Seed Abundance | Medium |
| Commercial Availability | Routinely Available |
| Bloom Period | Mid Spring |
| Propagated by Cuttings | No |
Suitability/Use
| Veneer Product | No |
|---|---|
| Pulpwood Product | No |
| Protein Potential | Low |
| Post Product | No |
| Palatable Human | No |
| Palatable Graze Animal | Low |
| Palatable Browse Animal | Low |
| Nursery Stock Product | Yes |
| Naval Store Product | No |
| Lumber Product | No |
| Fodder Product | No |
| Christmas Tree Product | No |
| Berry/Nut/Seed Product | No |