Leaf stalks are hairy. The twigs are stout, clumsy, and covered with a dense coating of velvety hairs. Twigs have conspicuous lateral buds but lack terminal buds. The buds are small, round, and hairy. Leaf scars are U-shaped and contain three groups of small, greenish bundle scars.
Twigs contain a wide, yellowish-brown pith and yield a milky sap when cut or bruised.
The dioecious flowers are small, greenish- yellow, and appear in June or early July. The bark on old trunks is rough and dark brown. The wood is soft, brittle, rather satiny to touch, orange-colored, and streaked with green. The poison sumac is also called swamp sumac and differs from the other sumacs in that it produces ivory white fruit, as does poison ivy. The poison sumac is found from Ontario, Canada, to Minnesota, and south to Florida and Louisiana.