Georgia Wildlife Federation

Resources < Wildlife Habitats < Guide to Native Plants of Georgia for Wildlife < Rhus glabra

Sumacs have a severe and unfair image problem, mainly because of poisonous plants like Poison Ivy, Poison Sumac, and Poison Oak. Smooth Sumac and its tough and handsome relatives, like Winged Sumac and Staghorn Sumac, are in fact not poisonous at all! Now that we’ve overcome that hurdle, let’s find out why Sumacs are great plants.

First, they are tough as nails. Their deep taproots allow them to shrug off drought, while their colonizing habit and dense canopy shades out weeds. Second, they are extremely common often being spread by migrating birds. Third, their fruits are tasty! They are sour enough to pucker the lips of any animal (with lips) except birds, which generally cannot distinguish sour or astringent tastes and thus relish this important winter food. Native Americans used to make teas and drinks from the berry panicles by adding them to cooled water (hot leaches out tannic acid and makes the drink too astringent). Today, this is still a great drink and a wonderful, healthful, natural substitute for artificial store-bought varieties. The berries are wonderful eaten fresh, too, and cover the hands in a sour reddish fur as they’re plucked from the woody flower stalk. Sumacs also have copious amounts of tannins, enough that their parts were used to tan leather in early American history.

A further thing about Sumacs is the astounding fall color, the primary reason for why people grow and love them. They are a stunningly deep, bright crimson and occasionally provide a spectrum of reds, yellows, and oranges along the margins that make it look like someone lit the entire plant on fire! It is a wonderful small tree to embrace.

Family: Anacardiaceae (Sumac/Cashew)

Description: A small colonizing tree with wide branch angles. Leaves are pinnate, 16-20” long, with 15-29 lanceolate, narrow, and serrated leaflets. Trees are dioecious, with conical/pyramidal panicles of blooms in summertime. Red berry clumps form on female trees during summer and mature in fall, where they turn a bright red, gain fur, turn sour, and may be eaten. Berries brown throughout the winter and lose their taste in approximately 1 month. Fall color is a striking array of reds, oranges, and yellows.

Size: 3 to 7 feet can reach up to 20 feet high

Habit: Upright small shrub or tree. Colonizes from aggressively suckering roots

Growth Rate: Very fast

Planting and Care: The most important thing to consider before planting a Sumac is its ability to sucker, spread, and colonize an area. This makes it suitable for naturalizing on dry hillsides, open fields, or forest edges, and even in informal gardens. However, for small or formal gardens this tree may become aggressive and gardeners will have to be vigilant for the suckers. Also, the wood is brittle and the limbs are susceptible to breakage in strong winds. It is intolerant of anything but the fullest of sun.

Ornamental Value: The best asset of Smooth Sumac is its fall color, which is a brilliant deep scarlet. Its fruits are also retained throughout winter in fluffy pyramids which tend to droop and look sad toward spring.

Landscape Use: Smooth Sumac works well to combat erosion and succeeds on tough spots in the landscape. Some of the best sites to allow this tree to colonize include dry and rocky hillsides, open, well-drained fields, and especially forest edges. It also provides low but dense shade and therefore out-competes most weeds.

Wildlife Benefits: Smooth Sumac is a foliar host for the Hickory Horned Devil and Red-banded Hairstreak. The fruits linger into late fall and winter and are used by White-tailed deer, opossum, Bobwhite Quail, grouse, and turkey. For other birds, including those on migration and those that over-winter, the abundance of Sumac berries provides a vital food source in the scarcity of the cold months. Cottontail feed on the bark.

Native Habitat: Native from Maine and southern Canada south to Texas and Northern Florida. It grows commonly in old fields, woodland edges, roadsides, and other dry open habitats.