Plantae > Tracheophyta > Magnoliopsida > Sapindales > Anacardiaceae > Rhus > Rhus coriaria

Rhus coriaria (Sicilian sumac)

Synonyms:

Wikipedia Abstract

Rhus coriaria, commonly called Sicilian sumac, tanner's sumach, or elm-leaved sumach, is a deciduous shrub to small tree in the Anacardiaceae or Cashew family, native to southern Europe. The dried fruits are used as a spice, particularly in combination with other spices in the mixture called Za'atar.
View Wikipedia Record: Rhus coriaria

Infraspecies

Rhus coriaria var. coriaria
Rhus coriaria var. zebaria

Attributes

Allergen Potential [1]  High
Dispersal Mode [3]  Endozoochory
Edible [2]  May be edible. See the Plants For A Future link below for details.
Flower Type [2]  Hermaphrodite
Hazards [2]  The plant contains toxic substances which can cause severe irritation to some people. Both the sap and the fruit are poisonous;
Leaf Type [2]  Deciduous
Pollinators [2]  Bees
Structure [2]  Shrub
Usage [2]  The leaves and bark are rich in tannin; The leaves can be collected as they fall in the autumn and used as a brown dye or as a mordant; The fruit and bark are also used; The leaves contain 20 - 35% tannin; The finely ground leaves and stems provide the dyeing and tanning agent 'sumac'; The shoots are cut down annually, near to the root, for this purpose; A fawn colour, bordering on green, is obtained and this can be improved with the judicious use of mordants; The cultivar 'Mesculino' is very rich in tannin, containing up to 35%; 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; A black dye is obtained from the fruit; A yellow and a red dye are obtained from the bark;
Height [2]  9.84 feet (3 m)
View Plants For A Future Record : Rhus coriaria

Protected Areas

Name IUCN Category Area acres Location Species Website Climate Land Use
DESFILADEROS DEL RÍO JALÓN 41432 Spain  
Luberon Regional Nature Park V 406572 France  

Predators

External References

USDA Plant Profile

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
♦ 1Derived from Allergy-Free Gardening OPALS™, Thomas Leo Ogren (2000)
♦ 2Plants For A Future licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
♦ 3Paula S, Arianoutsou M, Kazanis D, Tavsanoglu Ç, Lloret F, Buhk C, Ojeda F, Luna B, Moreno JM, Rodrigo A, Espelta JM, Palacio S, Fernández-Santos B, Fernandes PM, and Pausas JG. 2009. Fire-related traits for plant species of the Mediterranean Basin. Ecology 90: 1420.
Paula S. & Pausas J.G. 2013. BROT: a plant trait database for Mediterranean Basin species. Version 2013.06.
♦ 4Ben-Dov, Y., Miller, D.R. & Gibson, G.A.P. ScaleNet 4 November 2009
♦ 5HOSTS - a Database of the World's Lepidopteran Hostplants Gaden S. Robinson, Phillip R. Ackery, Ian J. Kitching, George W. Beccaloni AND Luis M. Hernández
♦ 6Biological Records Centre Database of Insects and their Food Plants
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