fragrant sumac

Family

Anacardiaceae

Scientific Name

Rhus aromatica

Other Common Names:

beach sumac

lemon sumac

aromatic sumac

polecat bush

Leaves

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.

Identifying Characteristics

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.

Flower Seed Head

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

Seed Fruit

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.

Where Found

Fragrant sumac is native to most of the US east of the Rocky Mountains, from Ontario and western Quebec, Massachusetts and New Hampshire to Florida and west to the Great Plains in Texas to South Dakota.

Growth Habit

woody bush or tree

Thorns or Spines

not present

Approximate Flower Diameter

pencil

Dominant Flower Color

green

Flower Symmetry

not symmetrical

Leaf Hairs

no hairs

Leaf Shape

Varies:

oval,

spatulate

Leaf Arrangement

alternate

Leaf Margin

Varies:

lobed,

serrated

Leaf Structure

pinnate

Leaf Stalk

shorter than leaf

Stem Hairs

no hairs

Stem Cross Section

round or oval

Milky Sap

not present

Life Cycle

perennial

Ochrea

not present

Plant Type

Shrub