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| ## Skunkbush {#skunkbush .Title-Header}                               |
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| *Rhus trilobata* Nutt.                                                |
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| Plant Symbol = RHTR                                                   |
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Contributed by: USDA NRCS National Plant Data Center & the Biota of
North America Program

### ![](media/image2.jpeg){width="2.598611111111111in" height="1.7354166666666666in"}

## Alternate Names 

Skunkbrush, polecat bush, stinking sumac, ill-scented sumac, quailbush,
squawbush, squawberry, basketbush, lemonade sumac, three-lobed sumac,
three-leaved sumac, lemita

## Uses

*Ethnobotanic*: Skunkbush fruits were used by Native Americans in foods,
beverages, and medicines. Pliable young stems were woven with grass
stems into durable baskets that would hold water. The leaves are said to
have been smoked by the Comanches.

*Wildlife & Livestock*: Livestock in some locations use skunkbush, but
it is not a preferred species. It has been planted in some locations as
a deterrent to grazing animals. It provides some browse for deer, elk,
and pronghorn when more preferred forage is unavailable. Skunkbush
fruits, which persist through fall and winter, provide a food for birds
and small mammals when other foods are scarce or unavailable. Skunkbush
also may form dense thickets that provide good hiding and nesting cover
for small birds and mammals.

*Conservation*: Skunkbush has been used as an ornamental (the fall
leaves turn bright yellow, orange, and red to reddish-purple), and it
has been widely planted at recreation sites, rest areas, and roadsides.
It is useful for windbreaks, shelterbelts, and because of the strong
root development, for erosion control. Var. *trilobata* has been
successfully transplanted onto phosphate mine spoils in Idaho.
\'Bighorn,\' a cultivar from Wyoming, has been widely planted on
pinyon-juniper sites, and the species has been successfully transplanted
in aspen-maple, pinyon-juniper, and mountain-brush zones.

## 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). Upright arching native shrubs
0.5-2.5 meters tall, forming rounded, moundlike, or upright thickets,
crown diameter often greater than the plant height; roots deep and
extensively branched, with woody, shallow, and spreading rhizomes,
sometimes connecting shrubs more than 9 m apart; sprouts arising from
rhizomes and root crown. Leaves: deciduous, alternate, compound with 3
leaflets, variable in size, 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, becoming orange or reddish in the
fall. Flowers: yellowish to whitish, in small, dense clusters 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 clusters at the ends of branches. Fruits: 5-7 mm in
diameter, red at maturity and sparsely hairy, each containing a single
nutlet. *Rhus trilobata* closely resembles *R. aromatica* and is often
treated as part of the latter. The common name is derived from the odor
of the leaves, especially when bruised.

*Variation within the species*: a number of ecotypes are known to occur
in skunkbush. Growth form and height vary geographically -- plants are
more branched and compact in the Southwest and taller in the north part
of the range. Current practice recognizes six formal varieties,
distinguished by morphological characteristics such as growth form,
height, leaf shape and size, fruit shape and pubescence, commonly
intergrading where they occur together.

Var. *anisophylla* (Greene) Jepson - OR, CA, NV, UT, AZ, and NM, south
into Mexico.

Var. *pilosissima* Engelm. - CA to TX, south into Mexico.

Var. *quinata* (Greene) Jepson -- OR, CA, NV, AZ, and NM.

Var. *racemulosa* (Greene) Barkl. - AZ and NM, south into Mexico.

Var. *simplicifolia* (Greene) Barkl. -- OK, CO, and NM, to CA and OR,
south to AZ and Mexico.

Var. *trilobata* -- covers the range of the whole species.

*Distribution*: Broadly distributed throughout the western North
America, from Saskatchewan and Alberta south to Texas and California and
into Mexico; not in Washington or British Columbia. See details below
for distribution of varieties. For current distribution, please consult
the Plant Profile page for this species on the PLANTS Web site.

## Adaptation 

Skunkbush grows in prairies to shrublands and oak woodlands at
elevations of about 1000-3000 meters and in a variety of sites including
dry rocky slopes, streamsides, seasonal drainages, and canyon bottoms,
sand dunes and sandhills, pastures, roadsides, and waste places \-- in
sun or partial shade and over a wide range of soils from nearly bare
rock to sand and heavy clay. It is intolerant of flooding and high water
tables. Skunkbush is a prominent species in many early seral
communities, especially after fire, but it also is an indicator of
climax in various shrub and grassland communities. Flowering:
April-July; fruiting: June-October, then persisting through the winter
if not eaten.

## Establishment

Skunkbush produces seed nearly every year, but the number of flowers
that produce fruit is relatively low. Branches 6-10 years of age produce
the most viable fruit. Mostly birds and mammals disperse seeds. Roadside
colonies frequently originate from germination of seed in caches of mice
and squirrels. Skunkbush, like other species of *Rhus*, may be an
effective seedbank former, with long-lived seeds stored in the humus
layer. The seeds have dormancy broken by cold treatment. Seedlings are
intolerant of crowding, even under optimal conditions. Growth of
skunkbush is most rapid during the first 3-5 years, and plantings have
remained healthy and vigorous for more than 20 years; healthy rhizomes
have been aged at more than 30 years.

## Management

Skunkbush sprouts vigorously from woody rhizomes or from adventitious
buds at the root crown after top-kill by fire. Crown width and overall
coverage often increase in response to fire. Skunkbush also may have the
ability to delay sprouting for up to a year following fire.

Skunkbush can be propagated from root and softwood cuttings -- most
effectively done well before freezing weather. Best seed germination is
from fall and winter planting. The presence of seeded grasses has
reduced the survival of skunkbush at some sites, and although the plants
are generally drought-tolerant, water-stressed seedlings may be stunted
for several years and sometimes fail to recover. Skunkbush is generally
reported to be tolerant of heavy grazing.

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

These plant materials are readily available from commercial sources.
Contact your local Natural Resources Conservation Service (formerly Soil
Conservation Service) office for more information. Look in the phone
book under "United States Government." The Natural Resources
Conservation Service will be listed under the subheading "Department of
Agriculture."

## References

Sanford, R.C. 1970. *Skunk bush (Rhus trilobata Nutt.) in the North
Dakota Badlands: Ecology, phytosociology, browse production, and
utilization*. Ph.D. diss., North Dakota State Univ., Fargo, North
Dakota.

Tirmenstein, D.A. 1987. *Rhus trilobata*. 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, Montana. \<http://www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/\>

Wasser, C.H. 1982. *Ecology and culture of selected species useful in
revegetating disturbed lands in the West*. FWS/OBS-82/56. U.S.
Department of the Interior, Fish and Wildlife Service, Washington, DC.

## Prepared By

*Guy Nesom*

Formerly BONAP, North Carolina Botanical Garden, University of North
Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina

## Species Coordinator

### *M. Kat Anderson*

USDA, NRCS, National Plant Data Center, c/o Plant Sciences Dept., Davis,
California

Edited:19jun02 jsp; 03june03 ahv; 060816 jsp

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

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*To file a complaint of discrimination write USDA, Director, Office of
Civil Rights, Room 326-W, Whitten Building, 14th and Independence
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