Rhus glabra

Smooth Sumac is an important winter food source for birds as the berries persist late into the winter when there is little else available, particularly when heavy snows bury ground-based food like insects and dropped seeds. Adding plants that produce winter berries to your landscape is one of the most important aspects to supporting birds through the winter as they rely on the calories and nutrition to maintain their body temperature during cold weather. Sumac trees are typically short in stature, up to about 15' tall but more commonly around 10' with large, tropical-looking leaves. They have a beautiful fall color and are an extremely low-maintenance landscape plant, thriving in most soil types and surviving extreme drought once established. Plants produce suckers to form clumps and should be given room to grow, they also establish quickly and will coppice readily making Smooth Sumac a good choice for a native chop-and-drop plant for soil building. Sumac has male and female plants, with berries being produced only by the female trees. Several individuals should be planted together to have a good chance of having both male and female plants trees growing together for pollination.

A first class plant, this interesting 10-15' U.S. native shrub has large, compound pinnate, tropical-looking leaves which turn a glowing bright-red in fall, ornate, yellow-green flowers in early summer become (on female plants) large showy clusters of reddish, hairy, berry-like fruits much enjoyed by wildlife; very adaptable, it will spread to hold soil and form a thicket; needs a male and female for fruit, ours are unsexed seedlings. S/M-D

Sumac is a dried berry that has a sour taste and a high vitamin C content. It’s used a lot in Mediterranean cuisine and throughout the Middle East as a garnish to give food a sour flavor. Sumac is delicious on everything from kebabs to cooked whole grains. Even though it’s used in other parts of the world, sumac grows wild throughout North America. In August through September, the berries appear like bright red cones on the lemon-scented leaves of this shrub. After you pick the berries, crush them lightly and use them fresh, or dry them and store in an airtight container.