It is painful irony indeed that one of the very spectacular hardy shrubs is dangerously poisonous to most people. This is poison sumac, one of the most brilliant native plants of autumn. It possesses a generous amount of the same oil found in poison-ivy and its close relative poison-oak.
The scientific name for poison sumac is Rhus vernix, but one finds others sometimes used – among them R. venenata and Toxicodendron vernix. Vernix means lacquer, and Linnaeus used this name because he was under the impression that the natural range of the species included both America and Asia and that in Japan it was the species which formed the basis of lacquer painting. This is not the case. Lacquer sumac is a related poisonous species of Japan and eastern Asia, Rhus verniciflua.
Planting Rarely Considered
The advisability of planting poison sumacs rarely comes up for serious consideration. However, the species is used in some plantings and there can be no question of its permanence when furnished with the abundant moisture in which it luxuriates. This shrub is much more gentlemanly (if this is the word) than its wretched cousins, poison-ivy and poison-oak, which wear so many guises – appearing as prostrate vines, climbing vines or scrambling or bushy shrubs. Poison sumacs are always up right shrubs or small trees, reaching 15 or occasionally 20 feet high. They have few branches, and these have a characteristic stubby appearance which permits identification at a distance. With even further consideration for students of nature, poison sumacs invariably grow in swampy situations, and one need not be on guard against them unless the going is very wet and marshy.
Leaves are alternate and pinnate, with 7 to 13 leaflets from 1 to 3 inches long. The absence of teeth on leaflet margins and the fact the leaves are borne alternately on green or gray branchlets without thorns distinguish this species from harmless sumacs. ashes. locusts and other subjects with which it might otherwise be confused. Its invariably wet habitat is another limiting factor.
This shrub has small greenish or yellow-green flowers similar to other sumacs but occuring in loose. sparsely branched clusters. The flowers are usually imperfect, as in hollies. with pollen and pistillate flowers on separate plants. The fruits are distinctive – gray or grayish white and about one-third as large as peas. In fruit the clusters are usually gracefully drooping and vary in length from 5 to 8 inches. as a rule. These berry-like fruits resemble those of poison-ivy rather than other native sumacs. The clusters are markedly attractive and usually remain on the branches from August on through the winter. It is rather surprising to see them now and then in Christmas wreaths and other winter decorations, in which they may pass as a kind of bayberry on the strength of their grayish waxy covering. One wonders how much trouble and discomfort they cause.
Beauty Of The Sumac
The beauty of this shrub – the quality which leads to much discomfort by innocent admirers – is its marvelous autumn coloring. The leaves turn from summer green to a very dark almost purplish green, and then pass through a breath-taking transition from glowing scarlet to brilliant orange. It is no wonder that people are tempted to collect some of this beauty for their homes. A glance shows that the pinnate leaves are very different from the trifoliate ones of poison-ivy, which is usually starting its brilliant coloring at about the same time. After the damage is done, initial and light infections may yield to home treatment, but a doctor’s surveillance is desirable to insure that the inflammation does not spread and become dangerous.
Poison sumac does not seem to be offered in American catalogs, and it is understandable why it is not an appealing nursery subject. Gardeners as gullible as the author about native plants with any outstanding qualities whatsoever may wish to collect and grow a plant or two of this species. It is native to all eastern states and as far west as Minnesota and eastern Texas and north into parts of southern Canada.
Sumacs as a group are moderately difficult to transplant. Spring is generally recommended as the best season. This time is doubly advisable in handling poisonous species in order that the particularly dangerous leaves will cause no trouble. Even so. gloves should be used for handling the shrubs (but removed when using a shovel or other tool) and buried with the final leveling of humus and light sandy loam around the plant. Sonic authorities recommend cuffing sumacs nearly to the ground as soon as they are planted, and there is much to favor this seemingly drastic treatment.
It would certainly be inviting difficulties with family and friends to plant poison sumacs where anyone would be likely to pass near them, as beside a path or at the edge of a lawn. Their coloring is very effective at a distance – along the remote side of a pond or in a boggy spot to which there is no access. Visitors to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden will recall the planting of poison sumacs there on a small island in the brook, a little below the willow and poplar groups. Such an arrangement is very satisfactory and attractive.
by B Blackburn – 61210
