ANACARDIACE/E— SUMACH FAMILY 



SMOOTH SUMACH. SCARLET SUMACH 



Rhus glabra. 



Rhus is by some referred to a Celtic word meaning red ; 

 others derive it from the Greek word meaning run, be- 

 cause the roots spread underground to a considerable dis- 

 tance from the trunk ; still others refer it to a Greek word 

 which indicates its value medicinally. Sumach is derived 

 from Simaq, the Arabic name of the plant. 



Low growing, spreading, with irregular branches and rather 

 unshapely form ; rarely becoming a small tree ; the twigs and 

 branchlets glabrous and more or less glaucous. Found in dry 

 soil from Nova Scotia to British Columbia and south to Florida, 

 Mississippi, and Arizona. Foliage sometimes used for tanning. 



Leaves. — Alternate, pinnately compound, eight to fifteen 

 inches long ; leaflets eleven to thirty-one, sessile, lanceolate or 

 oblong-lanceolate, three to five inches long, on a large smooth 

 stalk, round and often oblique at base, serrate, acuminate at 

 apex, rachis not winged ; when full grown are dark green 

 above, whitish beneath ; in autumn they turn a brilliant scarlet 

 and orange. 



Flowers. — June to August. Polygamo - dioecious, small, 

 green, borne in densely flowered terminal spikes. Calyx five- 

 cleft, persistent; corolla, of fwe petals, imbricate in the bud; 

 stamens five, inserted on a disk ; ovary one, and styles three. 



Fruit. — Drupe, small, one-seeded, sub-globose, red, covered 

 with short, crimson, acid hairs ; borne in dense terminal spikes. 



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