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Go west to see a sumac tree

2009 October 29
winged-sumac-tree

This winged sumac tree west of town will be brilliant this week. Photo by Ken Moore.

By Ken Moore

One of my favorite drives is west out of Carrboro on N.C. 54. Along the way are forest edges, fields and vistas across hilly terrain, beautiful miniatures of the grand mountain views that are four or more hours drive away.

With each drive, I usually discover something of interest not observed before. I’ve been waiting since about this time last year to share my discovery of an impressive sumac tree I noticed exactly 3.5 miles from the edge of town.

I glimpsed on a fence line on the left-hand roadside the brilliant fall color of what I thought was a sassafras tree. On my return drive, I remained alert to take a closer look and was surprised to realize that my sassafras was really a winged sumac.

Now, winged sumac, Rhus copallina, is by nature a medium-height, rhizomatous shrub. A single seedling plant can produce a vigorous clump simply by extending its shallow horizontal roots (rhizomes) in all directions. When you see an extensive display of it, you may be looking at a single plant. I very seldom see it above five or six feet in height, a condition certainly maintained by roadside mowing schedules that are a constant threat to nature’s efforts at self expression.

The specimen along that farmyard fence is the only winged sumac I’ve ever seen that could be described as a tree. Since the length of that fence is always neatly trimmed of vegetation, I have a hunch that the property owners are largely responsible for helping this particular sumac attain its tree stature. I have a thicket of winged sumac, and I’m inclined to see whether I can encourage a tree from it – that is, if I don’t have to spend much time pruning the rest of the thicket.

This time of year, I find myself appreciating the shining brilliant-red of winged sumac as unsurpassed of all the fall colors, and then I spy the brilliant reds of its cousin, the smooth sumac, Rhus glabra (see Flora, Aug. 30, 2007), a larger similar rhizomatous roadside shrub. I guess my favorite fall color is whatever I’m viewing at any given moment.

winged-sumac-leaves

Note the winged sumac’s rachis between the leaflets. Photo by Ken Moore.

Smooth sumac is easily distinguished from winged sumac by its vertical, conical seed heads that are displayed well into the winter. Winged sumac seed clusters are curled, round shapes that tend to present a messy effect. Looking closely at the center line (the rachis) of the compound leaves of winged sumac reveals a narrow flattened leafy surface along the edges, hence the description, winged sumac. Staghorn sumac, Rhus typhina, seen only in our mountain regions, is a similar but even taller species. There are great photos and descriptions of all the sumacs in Fall Color and Woodland Harvests, described in last week’s Flora.

We learned long ago from Native Americans that a refreshing drink, not unlike lemonade, can be made from the fresh berries of all three of these native sumacs; medicinal teas and other decoctions were made from the stem and root bark.

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