staghorn sumac

Photo: Katya from Moscow, Russia — CC BY-SA 2.0 · source

Survives zone 3 through 9

Harvest calendar

Best planted in early spring after your last frost, or in fall before the ground freezes, depending on your climate.

Sumac — a souring SPICE (lemony), not a dessert fruit. Tart red drupes for 'sumac-ade'; suckers freely. ⚠ Know your sumac: red upright fruit clusters are Rhus and safe; poison sumac (Toxicodendron vernix) has drooping white fruit and causes severe dermatitis.

Hardiness

Zone 3–9

Habit

Shrub

Edible part

Fruit

Ripens

Late summer–autumn

Mature size

Suckering shrub or small tree 3–8 m, thicket-forming; poor in containers

Light

Full sun; tolerates partial

Soil pH

6.0–7.5

Environment

Temperate

Native range

Eastern North America — Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and southern Quebec west to Ontario, Michigan and Minnesota, south to Iowa, Illinois, Tennessee, northern Alabama and Georgia; old fields, roadsides and forest edge.

Status

Both wild and cultivated

Years to fruit

3–5 yrs

Growth speed

30–60 cm/year — fast, and faster sideways than upward once suckering starts.

Spacing

200 cm (79 in) apart — about 4 m² (43 sq ft) per plant

Leaf shape

Alternate, odd-pinnate and very large — up to 60 cm long — with 13–27 toothed lanceolate-oblong leaflets each 5–12 cm long; the stout twigs are densely velvety-hairy, exactly like antler velvet, which is where the name comes from.

Root system

Shallow and strongly rhizomatous — rhizomes on smooth sumac have been traced to 3.4 m (11 ft), each throwing up numerous shoots — so a single plant becomes a clonal thicket. Excellent for holding banks; a nuisance in a small border.

Fruit description

Dense, erect, cone-shaped clusters of small crimson drupes thickly coated in fine red hairs; intensely sour and lemon-like, they hold on the bare branches all winter and are the part steeped for 'sumac lemonade'.

Propagation

Root cuttings and division of suckers in early spring are much the easiest routes and come true. Seed has a hard coat needing scarification (hot water or acid) followed by cold stratification, and germinates erratically without it.

Pollination

Dioecious/polygamous — usually needs male + female

The edible parts listed above are a starting point, not a field guide. Identify a plant with certainty — ideally against a local authority — before eating any part of it, and read the full disclaimer. Spotted something wrong? Report it.