+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| **FRAGRANT SUMAC**                                                    |
|                                                                       |
| ***Rhus aromatica* Ait.**                                             |
|                                                                       |
| plant symbol = RHAR4                                                  |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+

####### Contributed By: USDA, NRCS, National Plant Data Center & the Biota of North America Program

**Alternate common names**

Aromatic sumac, lemon sumac, polecat bush

**Uses**

The fruit is an important winter food for birds, including turkey,
ruffed grouse, robins, and flickers, and for various small mammals
(e.g., raccoon, opossum, chipmunk). The foliage is relatively
unpalatable to most species of wildlife and domestic livestock. Thickets
of fragrant sumac provide cover for many species of birds and small
mammals.

Fragrant sumac is not widely used for landscape plantings, probably
because of its relatively small size, but it is used as a ground cover,
especially on banks. The plants are hardy and can grow in sun or partial
shade. The main ornamental feature is the orange to red fall foliage
color. Several cultivars have been selected -- mostly for variation in
growth form. Fragrant sumac also has been used for rehabilitating
disturbed sites such as banks, cuts, and fills.

American Indians made a tart drink ("Indian lemonade") from the ripe
fruits of fragrant sumac (larger-fruited *Rhus* species provide a larger
quantity of the same substance). The bark of all sumacs has been used as
an astringent and leaves and bark can be used for tanning leather
because of the high tannin content. Various Indian tribes have used
fragrant ![](media/image1.jpeg){width="2.597916666666667in"
height="1.7472222222222222in"}

sumac in treatment for various illnesses and health problems. The
leaves, mixed with tobacco, were used as a smoking mixture.

**Status**

Please consult the PLANTS Web site and your State Department of Natural
Resources for this plant's current status, such as, state noxious status
and wetland indicator values.

**Description**

*General*: Sumac family (Anacardiaceae). Straggling to upright native
shrubs 0.5-2(-2.5) meters tall (rarely tree-like), forming colonial
thickets of up to 10 feet spread, suckering from the roots, the branches
slender ascending, puberulent, glabrate, or densely pilose; buds naked,
tiny, yellow, hairy, surrounded by a raised, circular leaf scar. Leaves:
deciduous, alternate, compound with 3 leaflets, variable in shape,
lobing, and margin, the leaflets unstalked, ovate to rhomboid, more or
less wedge-shaped at the base, coarsely-toothed, usually shiny-glabrous
above, the terminal leaflet 3-6.5 cm long; summer foliage green to
glossy blue-green, turning orange to red or purple in the fall. Flowers:
yellow, in small, dense inflorescences on short lateral shoots, opening
before the leaves, bisexual and unisexual, both types borne on the same
plant (the species polygamodioecious); male (staminate) flowers in
yellowish catkins, female (pistillate) flowers in bright yellow, short
panicles at the ends of branches. Fruits: 5-7 mm in diameter, bright red
at maturity and densely hairy, containing a single nutlet 3.8-4.5 mm
long, in terminal clusters. The common name "sumac" is from the Middle
English for related tree. The leaves are fragrant or at least odorous.

*Variation within the species*: three varieties are currently
recognized, based on differences in geography, leaf shape, and
pubescence of stems, leaves, and fruits. Var. *aromatica* occurs over
nearly the whole range of the species.

*Rhus aromatica* var. *arenaria* (Greene) Fern. -- restricted to Ohio,
Indiana, and Illinois.

*Rhus aromatica* var. *serotina* (Greene) Rehd. -- the western segment,
occurring from South Dakota to Texas and eastward to Arkansas, Missouri,
Iowa, and Illinois. It apparently intergrades with forms of *Rhus
trilobata* where their ranges meet in the Great Plains (mainly from
Texas to South Dakota).

*Distribution*: Fragrant sumac is native to most of the US east of the
Rocky Mountains, from Ontario and western Quebec, Massachusetts and New
Hampshire to Florida and west to the Great Plains in Texas to South
Dakota. For current distribution, please consult the Plant Profile page
for this species on the PLANTS Web site.

**Adaptation**

Fragrant sumac is common along the forested eastern margins of the Great
Plains and in open or otherwise disturbed sites on the margins of the
Gulf Coast prairie. It grows at a range of sites including open rocky
woodlands, valley bottoms, lower rocky slopes, and roadsides. Flowering:
March-May, usually before the leaves expand; fruiting: June-August.

**Establishment**

Fragrant sumac reproduces from seed or clonally via root suckers. It is
a pioneer species, establishing rapidly from seed after heavy
disturbance, particularly fire. Browsing by deer may be responsible for
rapid early removal of mature fruits; birds are the primary dispersal
later. Individual plants may live about 20-30 years; clones can live
substantially longer. Fragrant sumac sprouts vigorously after fire, and
it can be propagated from root cuttings.

Seed dormancy results from the presence of a hard, impermeable seed
coat. Fire scarifies seeds, promoting germination; various artificial
methods of pretreatment have been tested, including sulfuric acid, hot
water soaks, mechanical scarification, and cold treatment. Pretreated
sumac seeds generally begin germination within 10-20 days. The resistant
seed coats probably allow the seeds to remain viable for several years
in the humus layer, as do those in seeds of some other *Rhus* species*,*
allowing re-establishment through seed progeny when conditions are
favorable for germination and growth.

**Management**

Fragrant sumac reportedly sprouts vigorously after fire in the southern
Great Plains, and the primary mode of colonization after disturbance is
through sprouting from the adventitious-bud root crown.

**Cultivars, Improved and Selected Materials (and area of origin)**

Please check the Vendor Database, expected to be on-line through the
PLANTS Web site in 2001 by clicking on Plant Materials. These plant
materials are readily available from commercial sources.

**References**

Barkley, F.A. 1937*. A monographic study of Rhus and its immediate
allies in North and Central America, including the West Indies*. Ann.
Missouri Bot. Gard. 24:265-498.

Brizicky, G.K. 1962. *The genera of Anacardiaceae in the Southeastern
United States*. J. Arnold Arbor. 43:359-375.

Brizicky, G.K. 1963. *Taxonomic and nomenclatural notes on the genus
Rhus (Anacardiaceae)*. J. Arnold Arbor. 44:60-80.

Frankel, E. 1991. *Poison ivy, poison oak, poison sumac, and their
relatives*. The Boxwood Press, Pacific Grove, Calif. For review see
Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 120(1):76. 19xx.

Gilbert, E.F. 1966. *Structure and development of sumac clones*. Amer.
Midl. Nat. 75:432-445.

Hardin, J.W. & L.L. Phillips 1985. *Hybridization in eastern North
American Rhus (Anacardiaceae)*. ASB Bull. 32(3):99-106.

Johnson, T. 2000. *Rhus aromatica*. Herbweb.com.
\[http://www.herbweb.com/index.html\]

Oklahoma Biological Survey 2000. *Rhus aromatica Ait*. IN *Catalog of
woody plants of Oklahoma*. Norman, Oklahoma. 20sep2000.
\<http://www.biosurvey.ou.edu/shrub/rhara3.htm \>

Tirmenstein, D. 1987. *Rhus aromatica*. IN: W.C. Fischer (compiler).
*The fire effects information system* \[Data base\]. U.S.D.A., Forest
Service, Intermountain Research Station, Intermountain Fire Sciences
Laboratory, Missoula, MT. \<http://www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/\>

Uttal, L.J. 1984. *An environmental race of Rhus aromatica Ait. in
western Virginia*. Jeffersonia 15:75-76.

Xiaojie L., J.M. Baskin, & C.C. Baskin 1999. *Contrasting dispersal
phenologies in two fleshy-fruited congeneric shrubs, Rhus aromatica Ait.
and Rhus glabra L. (Anacardiaceae)*. Canad. J. Bot. 77:976-988.

**Prepared By**

*Guy Nesom*

BONAP, North Carolina Botanical Garden

University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina

### Species Coordinator

## Lincoln Moore

USDA, NRCS, National Plant Data Center, Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Edited 20sep00 jsp

For more information about this and other plants, please contact your
local NRCS field office or Conservation District, and visit the PLANTS
\<[http://plants.usda.gov](http://plants.usda.gov/)\> and Plant
Materials Program Web sites
\<[http://Plant-Materials.nrcs.usda.gov](http://Plant-Materials.nrcs.usda.gov/)\>.

*The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) prohibits discrimination in
all its programs and activities on the basis of race, color, national
origin, gender, religion, age, disability, political beliefs, sexual
orientation, and marital or family status. (Not all prohibited bases
apply to all programs.) Persons with disabilities who require
alternative means for communication of program information (Braille,
large print, audiotape, etc.) should contact USDA's TARGET Center at
202-720-2600 (voice and TDD).*

*To file a complaint of discrimination, write USDA, Director, Office of
Civil Rights, Room 326W, Whitten Building, 14th and Independence Avenue,
SW, Washington, DC 20250-9410 or call (202) 720-5964 (voice or TDD).
USDA is an equal opportunity provider and employer.*