ANACARDIACE.E CASHEW FAMILY 



Rhus copallina, L. 



Green- white Common Sumach, Smooth Sumach, 



Dwarf Black Sumach, Upland Sumach. 

 June-September Mountain Sumach, 



Rhus: from the old Greek and Latin names of this plant. 

 Copallina: from a Spanish-Mexican word meaning resinous. 



THE PREFERRED HABITAT: borders of thickets. 



THE SHRUB: four to six feet high, freely branched; the 

 branches dark brown and woody. 



THE LEAVES: alternate; pinnately divided into nine to 

 twenty-one broadly lanceolate leaflets, which are dark 

 green and without hairs above, beneath paler and often 

 with short, soft hairs; turning dull red in fall, acute or 

 obtusish at the apex; on more or less hairy petioles; 

 entire or few-toothed toward the apex; the stem between 

 the leaflets widened. 



THE FLOWERS: very small, in dense panicles, at the top 

 of the stems. 



THE FRUIT: very small drupes, maroon-red, covered with 

 fine, soft hairs. 



The two non-poisonous members of the Cashew Family 

 described here, are usually low bushes (similar in general 

 appearance), that make part of the copse of Nantucket. 

 Both have regularly divided leaves, and bear in season 

 large conical heads of tiny, densely crowded, greenish- 

 white flowers, which later turn into maroon-red fruits, 



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