526 NEW ENGLAND TREES IN WINTKH. 



STAGHORN SUMACH 



Rhus typhina L. 



R. hirta (L.) Sudw. 



(Lefthand twig- and lower habit picture in plate) 



HABIT A shrub or small tree rarely over 25 ft. in height with a 

 trunk diameter less than a foot; making a straggling growth with 

 forked branching forming a flat head with conspicuous red fruit clusters 

 generally present and stout velvety branchlets; sprouting abundantly 

 from the roots and thus forming broad thickets. 



BARK Thin, dark brown, smooth or in older trees more or less 

 rough-scaly. 



TWIGS Stout, conspicuously covered with long- velvety olive brown 

 to almost black hairs, whence the common name from resemblance to 

 a stag's antlers in the "velvet"; the tips often killed back several 

 inches by the frost; cut twig exuding a copious white milky juice. 

 LENTICELS conspicuous except as covered by the hairs, orange 

 colored, becoming laterally enlarged rough dots on older growth. PITH 

 wide, yellowish-brown. 



LEAP-SCARS Alternate, more than 2-ranked, deeply V-shaped, 

 almost encircling the bud. STIPULE-SCARS absent. BUNDLE-SCARS 

 scattered or frequently arranged in 3 groups, generally not con- 

 spicuous. 



BUDS Terminal buds absent, lateral buds conical, densely coated 

 with long rusty hairs. 



FRUIT In rather compact, erect, cone-like clusters; individual fruits, 

 drupes about 4 mm. in diameter coated with acid-tasting red hairs and 

 enclosing a small bony-covered seed. The conspicuous red fruiting 

 clusters are persistent throughout the winter but, since the species 

 tends to be dioecious, are not borne by all trees. 



COMPARISONS A somewhat smaller form, the Smooth Sumach 

 {Rhus glabra L.]. closely resembles the Staghorn Sumach in habit, twig 

 and fruit characters but the twigs are smooth (except the fruit stalks 

 which may be downy) and generally are covered with a bloom. (See 

 twig on right and upper habit picture in plate.) The Dwarf Sumach, 

 {Rhus copallina L.], is generally smaller in New England than the 

 other Sumachs. It has red fruit clusters like the Smooth and the 

 Staghorn Sumachs but is distinguished from these two forms by the 

 watery instead of white milky juice, by the leaf-scars which do not 

 surround the bud and by the turpentine flavor to the young twigs. For 

 comparison with the Poison Sumach see latter species. 



DISTRIBUTION In widely varying soils and localities, river banks, 

 rocky slopes to an altitude of 2,000 ft., cellar holes and waste places 

 generally, often forming copses. Prom Nova Scotia to Lake Huron; 

 south to Georgia; west to Minnesota and Missouri. 



IN NEW ENGLAND Common throughout. 



WOOD Light, brittle, soft, coarse-grained, orange-colored, streaked 

 with green, with thick nearly white sapwood. Pipes for drawing the 

 sap of the Sugar Maple are made from the young shoots. The bark 

 especially of the roots is rich in tannin. 



