Smooth sumac is spreading deciduous shrub and a member of the cashew family, Anacardiaceae, that also includes smoke tree, mango, and poison ivy. It is native to northeastern US, occurs throughout much of the country, but is most common in the East. Plants grow well in average, medium moist to dry well-drained soil, in full to part sun, and can be found in prairies, fields, abandoned farmland, woodland edges, roadsides, and railroad right of ways.
Description: Smooth sumac is a suckering shrub that grows 8-20′ feet tall and is usually found in large colonies. The thick stems are smooth and hairless or covered with fine white hairs. The shiny dark green leaves are eighteen inches long and pinnately compound with nine to twenty seven leaflets. Leaflets are covered with fine white hairs on the backs and turn bright orange to red in autumn. Small, yellow-green male and female flowers appear in terminal panicles on different plants from late spring to early summer. The panicles are five to ten inches long and female flowers give way to erect, cone-shaped clusters of berry-like fruit up to eight inches tall. Each fruit is hairy, red when ripe turning brown with maturity, persistent into winter, and are attractive to birds. Plants spread by seed and root stock.
Control: Pull, hoe, mow, or cut seedlings as they appear. Dig older plants being careful to get all of the root or cut or mow them in the summer months after flowering. In severe cases paint cut stems with an herbicide containing glyphosate or triclopyr.
Karen Meyers