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Smooth Sumac

Rhus glabra

Summary 6

Rhus glabra, the smooth sumac, (also known as white sumac, upland sumac, or scarlet sumac) is a species of sumac in the family Anacardiaceae, native to North America, from southern Quebec west to southern British Columbia in Canada, and south to northern Florida and Arizona in the United States and Tamaulipas in northeastern Mexico.

Smooth sumac has a spreading, open habit, growing up to 10 ft tall, rarely to 16 ft. The leaves are alternate, 12–20 in long, compound with 11–31 oppositely paired leaflets, each leaflet 2–4+1⁄4 in long, with a serrated margin. The leaves turn scarlet in the fall. The flowers are tiny, green, produced in dense erect panicles 4–10 in tall, in the spring, later followed by large panicles of edible crimson berries that remain throughout the winter.

Native Americans ate the young sprouts as a salad. The fruit is sour and contains a large seed, but can be chewed (to alleviate thirst) and made into a lemonade-like drink. Deer forage the twigs and fruit. In 2020, archaeologists unearthed a pipe at a dig in Central Washington state, showing chemical evidence that a Native American tribe had smoked Rhus glabra either alone or in a blend with tobacco, perhaps "for its medicinal qualities and to improve the flavor of smoke.

Fontes e Créditos

  1. (c) Ron Marusak, alguns direitos reservados (CC BY-NC), uploaded by Ron Marusak
  2. (c) botanygirl, alguns direitos reservados (CC BY), uploaded by botanygirl
  3. (c) Steve Harbula, alguns direitos reservados (CC BY-NC), uploaded by Steve Harbula
  4. (c) John Boback, alguns direitos reservados (CC BY-NC), uploaded by John Boback
  5. (c) thesnaguy, alguns direitos reservados (CC BY-NC-SA), uploaded by thesnaguy
  6. Adaptado por Tom Pollard de uma obra de (c) Wikipedia, alguns direitos reservados (CC BY-SA), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhus_glabra

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