FAMILY: ANACARDIACEAE
ALTERNATE COMMON NAME:
LEAVES: deciduous, alternate, once odd-pinnately compound, 12-24” long with 11-31 leaflets; leaflets dark green and somewhat lustrous above, pale below, margins serrate; rachis smooth, light lavender-reddish, not winged
FLOWER: functionally unisexual, plants dioecious; flowers 1/4” broad with 5 greenish-yellow petals, arranged in a terminal pyramid shaped panicle 8-12” long
FRUIT: small red drupe to 0.15” broad, fruiting panicle erect at maturity (fruiting panicles of Rhus copallinum droop)
TWIGS: thick, glabrous, glaucous when young, leaf scars horseshoe-shaped; sap milky
BARK: brown, smooth, bearing numerous horizontally elongate lenticels
FORM: sparingly branched shrub to small tree to ca. 20’ tall
HABITAT: woods edges, open woodlands, old fields, fence rows
WETLAND DESIGNATION: this species does not occur in wetlands anywhere in its range
RANGE: mainly eastern U.S., scattered in the west, just extending into parts of Canada [USGS Range Map]
USES: ornamental; mature fruits taste like sour lemon and can be steeped to make a lemonade-like beverage
WILDLIFE: fruits provide winter sustenance for various birds; moderate whitetail deer browse
Best Recognition Features:
- sparingly branched shrub or small tree, bark brown and smooth with horizontally elongate lenticels
- thick glabrous (glaucous when young) twigs with horseshoe shaped leaf scars
- leaves once-pinnate, long, leaflets serrate; rachis NOT winged
- erect fruiting panicle with many small red dupes
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