Staghorn Sumac
Rhus typhina · Anacardiaceae · Deciduous
Staghorn sumac is a small tree of roadsides and old fields, unmistakable in autumn from its scarlet leaves and upright red fruit cones. It is regularly confused with the far more aggressive tree of heaven, and with poison sumac, which is a different plant entirely and grows only in wet ground.
Quick facts
- Arrangement
- alternate
- Leaf
- Compound leaves with 13 to 27 sharply toothed leaflets, turning brilliant scarlet early in autumn.
- Bark
- Smooth brown, with young twigs covered in dense velvety hairs like a deer's antlers in velvet.
- Fruit
- A dense upright cone of fuzzy crimson berries, standing at the branch tips and persisting through winter.
- Height
- 15–30 ft
How to confirm it
- Twigs densely velvety-hairy, like antlers in velvet.
- Upright cone of red fuzzy berries at the branch tips.
- Leaflets toothed along their whole length.
- Forms colonies from root suckers on dry disturbed ground.
What it is confused with
One observation settles each of these.
Tree of heaven leaflets are smooth-edged apart from a couple of basal teeth, and it smells rancid when crushed. Sumac is toothed throughout.
Poison sumac has smooth-edged leaflets and drooping white berries, and grows only in swamps and bogs. Red upright fruit means the harmless one.
Where it grows
Eastern and central North America, on roadsides, field edges and disturbed dry ground.
Start here: opposite or alternate?
Look at where the leaves join the twig. Are they in matched pairs directly across from each other, or staggered one after another? The vast majority of trees are alternate, so finding an opposite tree removes almost everything else in one step.
In North America, opposite-leaved trees are remembered as MAD Cap Horse: Maple, Ash, Dogwood, Caprifoliaceae (viburnums and elders), and Horse chestnut. That is very nearly the whole list.
Check partway along a healthy twig rather than at the tip, where crowding can make alternate leaves look paired. And check more than one twig.