Sumach

For current botanical and horticultural information, see Sumac.

Sumach (Rhus) - Low trees, shrubs, or climbers, with an acrid juice, usually hardy, and remarkable for their elegant and picturesque growth, and often brilliantly colored leaves in autumn. Such good qualities as they have are rarely shown in our gardens, where they are, indeed, often absent save one or two of the commoner kinds, and these never grouped or shown in any right way, but perhaps half starved in the conventional muddle of the shrubbery. Several kinds are poisonous, and should not be planted near the house, and, if used at all, should be handled with great care, as accidents are frequent. Their poisonous character is well known and feared in their native countries. The Sumachs are not difficult as to soil or cultivation, thriving in ordinary garden soils, and rather enjoying poor and dry soils, some of them being suitable, therefore, for grouping on dry banks where little else will grow. They may be increased by root cuttings, layers, and also by seed.

Fragrant Sumach (Rhus Canadensis) - A hardy shrub with trifoliate leaves, a native of rocky woods in Canada and New England, and through eastern America, especially along the mountains. It has pale yellow flowers in short dense clusters, formed in autumn but flowering in spring before the leaves appear. Very useful for dry rocky banks, where it spreads prettily.

Mountain Sumach (Rhus Copallina) - A shrub or small tree with pinnate leaves of smooth glossy texture, turning a fine color in autumn in its own country, as they probably would in ours in full sun in warm soil. New England, Canada, and southward and westward.

American Smoke Tree (Rhus Cotinoides) - A small tree with oval leaves, and somewhat like our European kind, but really better, with larger and thinner leaves, taking also a fine color in autumn, of a beautiful scarlet, suffused with orange and crimson. A native of Missouri, Indian territory and eastwards. It should be planted in dry, warm soil and sunny positions. N. America.

Venetian Sumach (Rhus Cotinus) - A beautiful and distinct shrub, long cultivated though not always well placed, the simple leaves taking a fine color in autumn and the curious inflorescence giving a very pretty effect. There is a purple variety which is an improvement, and a pendulous variety less important. The Venetian Sumach looks very well as a group in a sunny open situation. S. and C. Europe and the East.

Scarlet Sumach (Rhus Glabra) - A distinct very hardy, bushy kind, with smooth rather small leaves, thriving in any poor dry soil, the leaves taking a very brilliant color in autumn. Var. laciniata is very distinct, the leaflets longer and of much greater breadth than in R. glabra itself, but they are cut up into narrow pinnate segments. When unfolding they remind one of a finely-cut umbelliferous plant in spring; when fully grown the midribs are red; and in autumn the leaves glow off into a bright color after the fashion of American shrubs. The wild plant is much rarer in cultivation than the cut-leaved variety.

Rhus Osbeckii - A fine kind from China and Japan, with pinnate leaves much finer than the others, striking foliage, also turning in good seasons and soils a good orange color in autumn. This is one of the kinds that might be cut down annually where plentiful, so as to get the fine effect of the foliage on the young vigorous stems.

See Poison Ivy.

Rhus Vernicifera - The famous Lacquer Tree of Japan, and a graceful shrub in the milder parts of Britain, but it is said to be very poisonous.

Poison Sumach (Rhus Vernix) - This is a shrub or, in its own country, a small tree with pinnate leaves, and growing in swamps in southern Ontario and the coast district of the eastern States. It is a very poisonous plant, and must not be brought much into gardens. The leaves are glossy and smooth, and turn a fine color in autumn.

Stags Horn Sumach (Rhus Typhina) - In its own country often a small tree or shrub, in ours generally a loose shrub common in gardens. The leaves (and stems) are densely covered with long soft hairs, and often take a fine color in autumn, which is increased by the persistent crimson seed-clusters. It is a native of sandy or rocky soil from Nova Scotia and Canada southwards. There is a lace-leaved from of this species also, in which the segments are very fine.

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