Rhus Typhina

The velvety, antler-shaped branches of Rhus typhina give the staghorn sumac its name and its most memorable trait: young stems are so densely covered in rust-colored hairs that they look like a deer's antlers still in velvet.

This deciduous shrub or small tree belongs to the cashew family, Anacardiaceae, and is native to eastern North America, where it grows across southeastern Canada, the northeastern and midwestern United States, and the Appalachian Mountains. It carries an IUCN status of Least Concern in its native range, though it has become widely cultivated worldwide and has turned invasive in some regions outside North America.

Beyond its striking winter silhouette, the plant is worth knowing for its brilliant autumn foliage, its persistent fruit clusters that feed birds through the cold months, and its long history of human uses, from dye-making to a tart, lemonade-like drink.

The clearest field mark is the dense coat of rust-colored hairs covering the leaf petioles and young stems, combined with a forking branch pattern that mimics deer antlers in velvet. This texture, paired with the plant's overall shape, is what separates staghorn sumac from smoother-stemmed relatives at a glance.

Staghorn sumac grows as a shrub or small tree up to 5 meters (16 feet) tall and 6 meters (20 feet) broad. Its alternate, pinnately compound leaves stretch 25 to 55 centimeters (10 to 22 inches) long and carry 9 to 31 serrate leaflets, each 6 to 11 centimeters (2.25 to 4.25 inches) long, giving the crown a fern-like, layered look.

The species is dioecious, meaning individual plants are either male or female. Small greenish-white to yellowish flowers cluster in dense terminal panicles from May through July, and only female plants develop the small green-to-reddish drupes that ripen into dense, upright infructescences 10 to 20 centimeters (4 to 8 inches) long and 4 to 6 centimeters (1.5 to 2.25 inches) wide at the base. In fall the foliage turns brilliant shades of red, orange, and yellow, and the reddish fruit clusters often remain visible on bare branches long after the leaves have dropped.

In late summer, some leaves develop galls on their undersides caused by the sumac leaf gall aphid, Melaphis rhois; these growths look unusual but cause little harm to the plant and are a normal, if easily overlooked, part of its seasonal appearance.

Staghorn sumac is primarily a plant of forest edges and disturbed ground rather than deep woodland interiors. It thrives along the margins of many forest types and is a frequent early colonizer of abandoned fields, especially on dry, rocky, or gravelly soils where competition from other plants is limited.

Within its native range it grows in old fields, clearings, roadsides, forest edges, and open woods, and it associates with forest communities such as oak-hickory, beech-maple, and northern hardwoods across the Great Lakes region and Appalachians. Elevation records range from about 30 to 610 meters (100 to 2,000 feet) in New York's Adirondack Mountains and up to 1,500 meters (4,900 feet) in the Appalachians.

Monthly observation data show a strong seasonal pattern, rising from a few thousand sightings in winter to a peak of over 23,000 in July before tapering off sharply by November. Since these figures reflect presence observations rather than true abundance, the summer peak likely tracks when the plant's flowers and fruit clusters are most visible and conspicuous, not necessarily when the largest number of plants exist.

Beyond its native range, staghorn sumac is now widely planted as an ornamental throughout temperate regions of the world, and in some of those areas it has spread aggressively enough to be classified as invasive.

Staghorn sumac has long served as an ornamental plant valued for year-round visual interest, though its vigorous suckering habit makes it a poor choice for small gardens. Landscapers sometimes strip away all but the top branches to create a palm-like crown effect, and select cultivars such as 'Dissecta' (cutleaf staghorn sumac) and Radiance ('Sinrus') have each earned the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.

The fruit is edible and has a traditional culinary use: soaked, washed in cold water, strained, and sweetened, it produces a tart, lemonade-like drink known as sumac-ade, which can also be reduced into jelly. Young shoots can be peeled and eaten raw, and the fruit has been found to carry natural antioxidant and antimicrobial properties.

All parts of the plant except the roots serve as a natural dye and mordant, thanks to their high tannin content, which can also be added to other dye baths to improve light fastness; leaves are typically harvested in summer and bark year-round. The timber itself is notable for high chatoyance, with values averaging above 20 PZC, making it of interest for decorative woodwork.

1. The species name typhina comes from Linnaeus and Torner's Latin description "Ramis hirtis uti typhi cervini," meaning the branches are hairy like antlers in velvet.
2. Staghorn sumac spreads both by seed and by rhizomes, often forming large clonal colonies with older shoots at the center and younger shoots radiating outward.
3. Its fruit clusters can persist on the plant from late summer all the way through spring, providing a winter food source for many bird species.
4. Some accounts link staghorn sumac to Victorian floriography, associating it with phrases like "reborn from ashes," though no authoritative source confirms this meaning.
5. The sumac leaf gall aphid, Melaphis rhois, causes small galls on the undersides of the leaves in late summer, an oddity that looks alarming but does little real damage to the tree.