nichepoetryandprose

One of the berry bushes common in our area is Staghorn Sumac (Rhus typhina L.).  Its leaves and berries turn brilliant red in autumn, and its berries are displayed in distinctive red ‘horns’.

Staghorn Sumac  is a small tree or shrub found at forest edges and in wastelands.   The shrub has a flat crown and an umbrella-like canopy. It has pinnately compound leaves and toothed leaflets.

Staghorn Sumac is a ‘pioneer’ species, often one of the first plants to invade an area after the soil is disturbed.  Although it reproduces by seed, it also grows from its vigorous underground root system, and forms dense colonies with the oldest trees at the centre.  In this way, it causes dense shade to out-compete other plants.

The flowers of Staghorn Sumac are greenish-yellow and occur in spiked panicles from May to July.  The berries are velvety, hairy red drupes, and ripen in June to September, often persisting through winter.  The berries are held in dense clusters or spikes at the ends of tree branches.

Staghorn Sumac is also called Velvet Sumac, or Vinegar-tree, and Vinaigrier in Quebec.

The common name of Staghorn sumac is derived from the velvet feel of its bark, reminiscent of the texture of deer antlers.  The word sumac comes from the words for red in Latin (sumach) and Arabic (summāq).  The specific name ‘typhina’ means ‘like Typha’ (cat-tail), a reference to its velvety branches.

The Staghorn Sumac provides food for birds including Evening Grosbeaks and Mourning Doves, and its twigs are eaten by White-tailed Deer.

It has many human uses, including for medicine, decoration, tanning and dyes.  Staghorn Sumac berries are used to make a lemon-flavored ‘sumac-ade’ or ‘rhus juice’.  Remember, before you consume any wild plant, be certain of your identification.

Sumac lemonade

Pick and clean the berries (removing them from the stem)

Soak berries in cool water

Rub the berries to extract the juice

Strain

Add sugar to taste

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Staghorn Sumac

                   Rhus typhina L.

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from a single stem

and subterranean creep

a crowd of sumac

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umbrellas unfurl

roof by roof

shield the hillside

from ministrations of sky

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shadowed ways beneath

to shelter and imitate

a gathering of deer

with velvet antlers lift

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an occidental village

red spires like minarets

insist on sky

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