*SUMACH (chiefly Rhus glabra — smooth or red sumach and R. coriaria — Sicihan 



sumach) 

 Also spelled sumac (Fr.) 



Even before sumach became important to the earhest American colonists, 

 native American varieties of this shrub were used by a number of American 

 Indian tribes. Among them the Ojibas utilized sumach's fruits in a cool 

 summertime beverage and drank it warmed and sweetened with maple 

 sugar during the winter months; the Kiowa Indians smoked a mixture of 

 tobacco and dried sumach leaves (Uphof, 1959, p. 312). Until after the 

 mid- 19th century American dyers considered it a necessity among their 

 stocks of drugs. Besides being a valuable mordant, it was used as a local 

 dye and also could be collected and processed for trade within and outside 

 the colonies. 



Mark Catesby, the Englishman who recorded American flora and fauna 

 during the 1720s, noted the presence here oi Rhus glabrum and R. virginianum. 

 Thirty years later Peter Kalm mentioned its use as a dye in the Philadelphia 

 area. Irascible Thomas Cooper remarked in 1815: "It grows in Syria, Spain, 

 Portugal, Montpelier; and plentifully in Pennsylvania, where want of 

 population, or want of industry, prevents its being gathered" (p. 14). 



Bronson used the stalks in a yellow, with alum mordant. The shoots and 

 leaves with coloring matter similar to that of nutgalls yielded drab and 

 slate colors on woolens and cotton. Sumach was also used in black dyeing 

 (1817, p. 193). 



The finest imported sumach was prepared for market in the following way : 

 Just before the plants flowered, younger twigs were removed, sun-dried, 

 and beaten to remove leaves and flower panicles. The leaves were then 

 exported or, as happened more frequently, the dye was shipped in powdered 

 form. Dyers had to be wary of the latter, for adulteration with sand, ground 

 branches, and other useless or inferior materials was quite common and 

 difficult to discover. 



During the second half of the 19th century, O'Neill stated that Sicilian 

 sumach was the most esteemed and brought the highest prices. He described 

 it as having a greenish-yellow color, bitter astringent taste, "and, when good, 

 a smell reminding of tea, or sometimes of new hay." At that time the author 

 admitted there were no reliable methods of determining the quantity of 

 sumach's various components. Research around 1900 revealed that European 

 sumach {R. coriaria) and the native American variety {R. glabra) both 

 contained about 25 percent tannin, along with small amounts of other 

 substances. 



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