Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses

FRAGRANT SUMAC

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Rhus aromatica Aiton var. serotina (Greene ) Rehder

Konza Prairie, Riley County, Kansas

Shrub

Height: 2-8 feet

Family: Anacardiaceae - Cashew Family

Flowering Period: April, May

Also Called:

Skunk bush, polecat bush.

Stems:

Many stems from single base; branches ascending, slender, glabrous to minutely-hairy; bark dark reddish-brown.

Leaves:

Alternate, stalked, 3-foliolate, 1 to 3 inches long, 1.2 to 2.8 inches wide, yellowish-green to bluish-green, glabrous to sparsely hairy on lower surface; leaflets variable, nearly sessile, egg-shaped to rhomboid; margins scalloped or with rounded teeth; terminal leaflet largest, fan-shaped, 3-7-lobed; tips rounded or blunt.

Inflorescences:

Clusters of small flowers, head-like or irregular, rounded, terminal.

Flowers:

Staminate and pistillate flowers on different plants or with some perfect flowers; flowers less than 1/10 inch broad, pale yellow; stalks short; sepals 5, united at base; petals 5, usually hairy on inner surface; stamens 5; anthers small, yellow. The flowers open before the leaves or with the unfolding leaves.

Fruits:

Drupe. spherical, 1/5 to 1/4 inch in diameter, bright red, densely long-hairy, containing single nutlet; nutlet oval or bean-shaped, about 1/6 inch long, smooth, reddish-brown.

Habitat:

Prairie ravines, rocky wooded hillsides, glades; sandy or gravelly soils.

Distribution:

Throughout Kansas.

Uses:

Native Americans applied a poultice of the roots to boils and mixed the leaves with tobacco to smoke. The leaves were also used in treatments of colds. The fruits were used to treat toothaches and the flu. During the winter, small mammals, turkeys, grouse, robins, and flickers eat the seeds and rabbits and mice eat the bark. The thickets provide wildlife cover.

Comments:

Fragrant sumac forms thickets up to 10 feet across. The leaves have a very unpleasant odor when crushed. The leaves fade orange to red or purple in the autumn.

Fragrant sumac inflorescence