Tree Description:
A shrub or small tree to 20 feet tall and one or more trunks to 8" in diameter, with irregular branching that forms a loose, rounded crown of shiny green foliage.
Range/Site Description:
Disturbed sites, fencerows, and rocky limestone slopes in Central Texas, from the Balcones Escarpment north and west to the mountains of the Trans-Pecos.
Leaf:
Branches, twigs, and leaves without prickles or thorns; leaves are alternate, once-compound, 5" to 9" long, with 11 to 21 leaflets and a weakly-winged rachis ; leaflets 1" to 3" long and up to 0.5" wide, lanceolate, the margins mostly without teeth. Leaves turn bright shades of yellow, orange, and red in the fall.
Flower:
A tight spike of white flowers, 4" to 6" long, appears in spring at the ends of the branches.
Fruit:
A conical cluster of small, dark red, berry-like drupes, each about 0.2" in diameter with minute hairs.
Bark:
Smooth, gray-brown, developing horizontal lenticels that break up on larger trunks into scaly plates and rough fissures.
Wood:
Sold in nurseries as a native landscape specimen for its fall color.
Similar Species:
Winged sumac (Rhus coppalinum) occurs in East Texas and has a strongly-winged leaf rachis and wider leaflets.
Interesting Facts:
The leaves were used as a replacement for oak bark in tanning, and the fruit can be used to make a beverage called, "sumac-ade" or "rhus-ade."
