Common Name: prairie sumac

Duration: Perennial

Nativity: Native

Lifeform: Tree

General: Deciduous large shrub, can grow as single trunked tree to 30 ft (10 m) or suckers to form colonies; bark light brown to gray, smooth with numerous lenticels when young, later large, thin scales.

Leaves: Alternate, pinnately compound, lanceolate up to 12 inches long, 7 to 15 leaflets per leaf; leaflets narrowly lance-shaped and somewhat hooked, entire margins; rachis have prominent wings between the leaflets, shiny, dark green above, paler, slightly fuzzy below.

Flowers: Monoecious, greenish-yellow to white and small, borne on 3-5 in wide, terminal, pyramidal panicle in mid to later summer.

Fruits: Dark red drupe, borne on terminal cluster, covered with short, sticky, red hairs, matures in fall, present through winter.

Ecology: Found on rocky hillsides in limestone and calcareous soils; blooms July-August.

Notes: Sumacs often thrive in the poorest soil and tolerate extremes of heat, cold, and drought. Larval host and nectar source for Hairstreak butterfly.

Ethnobotany: Female plants produce berries that can be soaked in water for a tart but high in Vitamin C tea.

Etymology: Rhus is derived from rhous, an ancient Greek name for Sumac, lanceolata -lance-like- refers to the shape of the leaves.

Synonyms: Rhus copallinum var. lanceolata

Editor: SBuckley, 2010