Staghorn Sumac 



607 



3. SOUTHERN SUMAC Rhus leucantha Jacquin 



This little-known tree or shrub was well described and illustrated by Jacquin 

 in 1798, but this author did not know where it grew naturally, his description and 

 figure having been drawn from plants grown under glass in the garden at Schoen- 

 brunn, Vienna. It is now known to 

 inhabit extreme southern Florida 

 and Cat island near the mouth 

 of the Mississippi River, and prob- 

 ably occurs at intermediate points. 

 There is a similar tree or shrub in 

 the province of Pinar del Rio, 

 Cuba, but the specimen of this 

 plant that we have seen does not 

 enable us to decide whether it 

 represents the same species or not. 

 In the region south of Miami, 

 Florida, it is a tree reaching a 

 height of about 8 meters, with a 

 trunk about i dm. thick. 



The bark of the Florida tree 

 is thin, bright red, smooth and 

 shining. The young shoots are finely haiiy. The axis of the leaves is winged 

 between the leaflets as in the Dwarf sumac and the Texan sumac; there are 17 to 

 31 leaflets, which are short-stalked or stalkless, lanceolate, unequal-sided, but not 

 scythe-shaped, 5 to 9 cm. long, long-pointed, narrowed at the base, dark green, 

 dull and smooth on the upper surface when mature, finely hairy on the under side. 

 The flowers are described as white. The fruit is similar to that of Rhus copallina 

 and similarly covered with red hairs. 



Fig. 557. Southern Sumac. 



4. STAGHORN SUMAC Rhus hirta (Linn^us) Sudworth 

 Datisca hirta Linnaeus. Rhus typhina Linnaeus. Schmaltzia hirta Small 



Usually a large shrub, the Staghorn sumac or Hair}^ sumac sometimes becomes 

 a tree up to 13 meters high, with a trunk 3 to 4 dm. in thickness. It prefers dry 

 soil, commonly growing on hillsides, though sometimes near the borders of swamps, 

 and occurs from Nova Scotia to Georgia, westward to Ontario, South Dakota, 

 Missouri, and Mississippi; it is uncommon near the coast south of New York. 

 The sticky, milky sap turns dark in contact with the air. 



The bark is dark brown, smooth, or, when old, somewhat scaly. The young 

 twigs are very stout, densely pink-velvety, becoming green and finally smooth 

 and brown after about four years' growth. The buds are yellowish hair)-, round, 



