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Fragrant sumac is a native shrub that grows 2-8' tall. One-inch-long spikes of closely-packed flowers arise from leaf axils. Individual flowers are 1/8" long, tubular but less than twice as long as wide, with five greenish-yellow petals and a calyx of five short sepals fused at their bases; flowers are either perfect (with both male and female organs) or unisexual (either stamens only or pistils only). (If unisexual, all flowers on one plant are the same sex.) Male flowers have five stamens with yellow-orange anthers but no pistil; female flowers have a pistil with a Y-shaped tip but no stamens. After fertilization, the flowers are replaced by fruits 1/4-3/8" in diameter, roughly spherical, deep red, and exuberantly hairy; it contains a single stone (a seed with a hard coat). Fragrant sumac blooms before either smooth sumac or staghorn sumac and its fruit matures earlier.

Rhus

Rhus aromatica

fragrant sumac [Blooms: Apr-May]

Smooth sumac is dioecious — each plant produces only either male (staminate) or female (pistillate) flowers. Individual flowers are about 1/4" across with a green calyx with five teeth and a whitish green or yellowish green corolla with five spreading petals. The lobes and teeth range from lance-shaped to oval. Male flowers also have five stamens with large yellow anthers and style rudiments; female flowers have an ovary with three closely-packed, stout styles in the center and sometimes with rudiments of stamens. On female plants, after fertilization, the flowers are replaced with about 5 mm wide drupes containing a single straw-yellow stony seed. The fruits are initially green and densely covered with short hairs, turning an intense, deep red when mature.

Rhus

Rhus glabra

smooth sumac [Blooms: May-Jul]

In staghorn sumac, some upper stems bear clusters (panicles) of flowers that are up to 12" long and 6" across; pistillate (female) inflorescences (see below) tend to be more densely packed with flowers and smaller than the staminate (male) inflorescences. Individual flowers are 1/8-1/4" across with a five-lobed calyx, each lobe about as long as (and alternating with) the petals, and five spreading, oblong petals; both calyx and petals are yellowish-green. Staghorn sumac has a complicated sex life. Some plants have both perfect flowers (with both male and female organs) and unisexual flowers (male or female but not both) on the same individual. Other plants have flowers of only one sex (either male or female but not both). Female flowers have a central pistil with an orange-yellow, three-part stigma; male flowers have five stamens with large, bright yellow anthers. The fruits are very fuzzy, berry-like drupes about 1/4" across, deep red when ripe, each with a single seed. The velvety branches and fuzzy fruit distinguish this plant from other sumacs. A citrus-y summer drink can be made from an infusion of the fruits soaked in hot water for a few hours; just be sure to filter the infusion through a fine filter (coffee filters are good) as the hairs covering the fruit can irritate the throat. Add some sugar or honey to taste. The binomial "Rhus hirta" is occasionally used for staghorn sumac, but ITIS is clear that the accepted name is Rhus typhina.

Rhus

Rhus typhina

staghorn sumac [Blooms: May-Jul]