SC - Sumac?

[James Gilly / Alasdair mac Iain]

At 18:39 17-1-99 EST, Ras wrote:
>Poison sumac has smooth bark and shiny leaves and the smooth
>berries are born in very loose racemes and are a different color.

White.

>From the *EB*:

    sumac, any of certain species of shrubs and small trees belonging to
the genus *Rhus*, in the cashew family (Anacardiaceae), native to temperate
and subtropical zones.  All sumacs have a milky or resinous sap, which in a
few species can cause a contact dermatitis.  Used in the past as a source
of dyes, medicines, and beverages, sumacs are now valued as ornamentals,
soil binders, and cover plants.  The sumacs grown for landscape use display
a graceful habit, spectacular fall colour, or colourful fruit clusters.
    The smooth, or scarlet, sumac (*R. glabra*), native to the eastern and
central U.S., is the most common.  It grows to a height of 5 metres (20
feet), with an open, flattened crown and a few stout spreading branches.  A
cultivated variety has much dissected, fernlike leaves.  Somewhat taller is
the staghorn, or velvet, sumac (*R. typhina*), up to 9 m, named for the
dense or velvety covering on new twigs.  Its fall foliage is orange-red to
purple.  It also has a variety with finely cut leaves.
    Poison sumac, or poison elder (*R. vernix*, or in some classifications,
*Toxicodendron vernix*), is an attractive narrow shrub or small tree native
to swampy or acidic soil of eastern North America.  It has whitish waxy
berries on loose hanging stalks, unlike the upright reddish, fuzzy fruit
clusters of other sumacs.  The clear sap. which blackens on exposure to
air, is extremely toxic for many people.
    The smaller sumacs are the shining, winged, or dwarf sumac (*R.
copallina*) and the lemon, or fragrant, sumac (*R. aromatica*).  The former
is often grown for its shiny leaves, the leaflets of which are connected by
ribs along the axis, and showy reddish fruits.  The fragrant sumac has
three-parted leaves, scented when bruised; it forms a dense low shrub
useful in landscaping.
    The Sicilian sumac (*R. coriaria*), from the Mediterranean region, is
cultivated as a source of tannin in southern Italy.
[*The New Encyclopaedia Britannica*, 15th edition, vol 11, pp 381-382.
Copyright 1986 by Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.]

We had sumac (presumably scarlet sumac) growing in our back yard and at our
neighbours' in Michigan when I was a kid, but it never would have occurred
to me that it was edible. 8)

By the way, for those who aren't familiar with it, it's "shoo-mac."


Alasdair mac Iain



Laird Alasdair mac Iain of Elderslie
Dun an Leomhain Bhig
Canton of Dragon's Aerie [southeastern CT]
Barony Beyond the Mountain  [northern & southeastern CT]
East Kingdom
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Argent, a chevron cotised azure surmounted by a sword and in chief two
mullets sable
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