Plantae > Tracheophyta > Magnoliopsida > Sapindales > Anacardiaceae > Rhus > Rhus glabra

Rhus glabra (smooth sumac; sumac glabre)

Synonyms:
Language: French

Wikipedia Abstract

Rhus glabra, the smooth sumac, is a species of sumac in the family Anacardiaceae, native to North America, from southern Quebec west to southern British Columbia in Canada, and south to northern Florida and Arizona in the United States and Tamaulipas in northeastern Mexico. In late summer it sometimes forms galls on the underside of leaves, caused by the parasitic sumac leaf gall aphid, Melaphis rhois. The galls are not harmful to the tree. This species is incredibly important in the production of pork products in Iowa.
View Wikipedia Record: Rhus glabra

Attributes

Allergen Potential [1]  High
Screening - Summer [2]  Dense
Screening - Winter [2]  Porous
Bloom Period [2]  Mid Spring
Drought Tolerance [2]  Medium
Edible [3]  May be edible. See the Plants For A Future link below for details.
Fire Tolerance [2]  High
Flower Type [3]  Dioecious
Frost Free Days [2]  4 months 15 days
Fruit/Seed Abundance [2]  High
Fruit/Seed Begin [2]  Summer
Fruit/Seed End [2]  Fall
Growth Form [2]  Rhizomatous
Growth Period [2]  Spring, Summer
Growth Rate [2]  Moderate
Hazards [3]  There are some suggestions that the sap of this species can cause a skin rash in susceptible people, but this has not been substantiated. See also notes in 'Cultivation Details'.
Leaf Type [3]  Deciduous
Lifespan [2]  Perennial
Pollinators [3]  Bees
Propagation [2]  Bare Root, Container, Seed
Root Depth [2]  24 inches (61 cm)
Seed Spread Rate [2]  Slow
Seed Vigor [2]  High
Seeds Per [2]  59775 / lb (131781 / kg)
Shape/Orientation [2]  Erect
Structure [3]  Shrub
Usage [3]  The leaves are rich in tannin, containing about 10 - 25%; Up to 31.2% has been obtained from some plants; They can be collected as they fall in the autumn and used as a brown dye or as a mordant; The twigs and root are also rich in tannin; A black and a red dye is obtained from the fruit; A black dye is obtained from the leaves, bark and roots; An orange or yellow dye is obtained from the roots harvested in spring; A light yellow dye is obtained from the pulp of the stems; The inner bark, mixed with bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis) and the inner bark of wild plum (Prunus sp.) has been used to make a yellow dye; An oil is extracted from the seeds; It attains a tallow-like consistency on standing and is used to make candles. These burn brilliantly, though they emit a pungent smoke; The plant has an extensive root system and is fairly wind tolerant, though branches can be broken off in very strong winds. It is planted for soil stabilization and as a shelter screen; It can quickly establish itself in open sunny locations and so can be used as a pioneer species for establishing woodlands; Wood - soft, light, brittle;
Vegetative Spread Rate [2]  Moderate
Flower Color [2]  Yellow
Foliage Color [2]  Green
Fruit Color [2]  Brown
Fall Conspicuous [2]  Yes
Fruit Conspicuous [2]  Yes
Height [3]  9.84 feet (3 m)
Width [3]  9.84 feet (3 m)
Hardiness Zone Minimum [2]  USDA Zone: 3 Low Temperature: -40 F° (-40 C°) → -30 F° (-34.4 C°)
Light Preference [2]  Full Sun
Soil Acidity [2]  Neutral
Soil Fertility [2]  Infertile
Water Use [2]  Low
View Plants For A Future Record : Rhus glabra

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Ecosystems

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Range Map

External References

USDA Plant Profile

NatureServe Explorer

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
♦ 1Derived from Allergy-Free Gardening OPALS™, Thomas Leo Ogren (2000)
♦ 2USDA Plants Database, U. S. Department of Agriculture
♦ 3Plants For A Future licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
♦ 4HOSTS - a Database of the World's Lepidopteran Hostplants Gaden S. Robinson, Phillip R. Ackery, Ian J. Kitching, George W. Beccaloni AND Luis M. Hernández
♦ 5Jorrit H. Poelen, James D. Simons and Chris J. Mungall. (2014). Global Biotic Interactions: An open infrastructure to share and analyze species-interaction datasets. Ecological Informatics.
♦ 6Study of Northern Virginia Ecology
♦ 7Ben-Dov, Y., Miller, D.R. & Gibson, G.A.P. ScaleNet 4 November 2009
♦ 8Biological Records Centre Database of Insects and their Food Plants
♦ 9Robertson, C. Flowers and insects lists of visitors of four hundred and fifty three flowers. 1929. The Science Press Printing Company Lancaster, PA.
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0