Rhus glabra L.

Smooth Sumac; Scarlet Sumac

Shrub

Perennial

Vascular

Smooth Sumac is a native colonial shrub or small tree in the Sumac family (Anacardiaceae). It can be found throughout Alabama. Smooth Sumac occurs in mesic to dry woodlands, along fence rows and power lines, and on disturbed sites. It is rhizomatous and often forms thickets. The stems are up to 18 feet in height. Young stems are often not branched, with older stems branched above the middle. The young stems are green in color and glabrous. Older stems and trunks have smooth, light gray bark. Leaves are alternate, petiolate, and odd-pinnately compound with 11-19 leaflets. The Leaflets are sessile, elliptic to oblong in outline, serrate, and glabrous above and glaucous below. Leaves are lustrous and dark green above and pale green below. The rachis is not winged. Leaves turn shades of red or orange before falling in the autumn. Flowers are produced in dense terminal panicles. Individual flowers are small and radially symmetrical. Each flower has 5 green sepals and 5 greenish-white petals. Smooth Sumac is dioecious. Male plants will have flowers lacking a pistil, and functionally pistillate flowers will have flowers with rudimentary stamens. The fruit is a drupe densely covered with red hairs. The sour fruit can be used to make a drink similar to pink lemonade. Smooth Sumac is a larval food plant for the Red-banded Hairstreak (Calycopis cecrops). The flowers attract many kinds of insects, especially beetles, wasps, flies, and bees. The fruit of Smooth Sumac are consumed by many bird species. Smooth Sumac is easily grown in most soils. It prefers full to partial sun. Smooth Sumac can spread aggressively from root sprouts, and is best used in natural settings such as along a woodland border or on rocky or steep slopes that are difficult to maintain. Several cultivars are available including dwarf forms.—A. Diamond

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Native

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