This week: Pioneering Staghorn Sumac
Hello!
Staghorn Sumac (Rhus typhina) is a northeastern understory tree with some big benefits: it’s gorgeous, wildlife loves it, and it has more than a few practical uses.
Staghorn Sumac Benefits
First, it has a striking appearance. Throughout the summer, it sports clusters of red fuzzy berries. In the fall, the foliage turns flaming red. Gorgeous! While you’re admiring it, you might also notice gamebirds and songbirds using it for habitat and pecking at the fruit well into the winter. Rabbits, deer, and moose all browse the leaves, but no need to worry—this plant considers it natural pruning and will bounce right back.
It also has practical uses. Eastern indigenous people used Staghorn Sumac medicinally and for food. They harvested fresh and dried berries to make a tasty drink, similar to lemonade. People still make this refreshing beverage today—I’ve had it! Similarly, it is still used to make natural dyes and inks.
Staghorn Sumac’s Pioneering Spirit
Staghorn Sumac prefers sunny, dry spots, where it can grow as tall as 40 feet, but is often more of a tall shrub. There are male and female plants, and only the females produce berries. It can also form large, suckering colonies that are a single individual.
Staghorn Sumac is a pioneer species (though the scientific types call it an obligate initial community species). Pioneer species quickly move into disturbed soils. This is why you’ll see Staghorn Sumac at the edges of forests and fields, on old strip mine sites, and along highways. One theory suggests that Sumacs form dense colonies to shade out ground cover, saving space for the next succession of trees to take root and grow.
Lookalike Trees
Staghorn Sumac is easily confused with other trees that have compound pinnate leaves, such as the invasive Tree-of-Heaven or native Black Walnut saplings. Tree-of-Heaven has different fruits—clusters of samaras (like a half of a maple tree helicopter) and grows much taller. Black Walnut saplings have smooth twigs, whereas Staghorn Sumac has velvety stems.
In Your Landscape
While Staghorn Sumac is a gorgeous plant for a naturalized area or along a woodland’s edge, it’s a bit unruly in residential areas. For neighborhood living, consider ‘Tiger Eyes,’ a dwarf cultivar with yellow foliage and orange fall color that adds a lot of drama to a garden design.
Elsewhere:
The big box native plant list is up to date! While there is always a selection of perennial native cultivars at both stores, there were a few shrubs of note at Home Depot: cultivars of Sweetspire and Buttonbush that appear to have been bred for compact size. And, Lowe’s had the aforementioned Tiger Eyes’ Staghorn Sumac.
Have a great week!
Julie