THE SMOOTH SUMACH 



WHEN you find a native Sumach with reddish hairy fruit, smooth leaves and 

 twigs, and leaf-stems without winged margins, you may be sure it is the Smooth 

 Sumach. As may be seen in the plate, the margins of the leaflets are slightly 

 serrate and their tips are slender and acutely pointed. The under surface of the leaflets 

 is whitish, the upper surface being bright green and turning to brilliant red in autumn. 

 The panicles of greenish flowers appear about midsummer and the scarlet fruit remains 

 on throughout the winter, furnishing a starvation ration to chickadees and other winter 

 birds. 



The Smooth Sumach is commonly a shrub rather than a tree. It is distributed 

 over a great area, extending from Nova Scotia to Florida on the east, and from British 

 Columbia to Arizona on the west. It is very commonly associated with the Staghorn 

 Sumach, which is at once distinguished by the velvety covering of hairs on the twigs. 

 Both of these species, like other common members of the genus Rhus, have the power of 

 multiplying by underground stems a fact that enables them to cover sandy barrens and 

 rocky hillsides to the exclusion of other shrubs, and commonly to the great enhancement 

 of the beauty of the autumn landscape. 



Like the other Sumachs, the twigs of this species very commonly die toward the 

 tip each winter, especially when the weather has been favorable to growth late the previous 

 season. The result is that the branch is continued from a side bud some distance down from 

 the tip, so that the twig is likely to show a very zig-zag sort of growth. The bark of the 

 stems near the ground is often completely gnawed off in winter by mice that work beneath 

 the snow. 



The leaves of the Smooth Sumach are sometimes used in tanning leather, and the 

 shrubs are often utilized by landscape architects for ornamental planting. For this 

 purpose, however, a variety which is believed to be a sport from the normal form is much 

 more valuable; it is called the Fern-leaved Sumach, and has very attractive laciniate 

 foliage that colors as brilliantly in autumn as does the parent type. This form makes a 

 very beautiful border plant, although some trouble may come from its spreading to 

 adjacent lawns, if care is not taken to prevent the underground stems from penetrating 

 in all directions. 



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