Seasonal Wild Flowers

Latin name

Rhus typhina

Family

Anacardiaceae

Flowering season

July to August

English distribution

It is grown in gardens throughout the country.

The escape is also found throughout the country

but it is much less common in northern areas.

See the BSBI distribution map for Stag's-horn Sumach

Habitat

It is a neophyte, which has been grown in the UK since

the 1620s, but was only recognised as naturalised in the

wild in the 1960s.

It originates in the wild as a relic plant or a garden throw

-out and grows on waste ground, brown-field sites

and tips, and by roads and railways.

It spreads quickly by producing suckers.

Description

Stag's-horn Sumach is a deciduous shrub or small tree

growing up to 10m.

Male and female flowers are on separate trees (dioecious).

Male flowers are in clusters in a loose, green pyramid.

Each male flower has 5 greenish petals and 5 yellow

stamens.

Female flowers are in tight, conical clusters up to 20cm.

Each flower is round, yellow green and surrounded by

5 green-yellow petals radiating hairs.

It has 3, capitate stigmas which fall off as the flower ages.

The flowers become scarlet when the hairs turn red.

They form a bright red, erect, decorative cone.

The fruits are small nuts surrounded by hairs.

The fruits remain on the ‘cone’ and darken over winter.

I have no pictures of the early stages of individual

male flowers  so I recommend these by Brian Johnson.

Leaves are green, pinnate and up to 60cm.

There are up to 21, toothed leaflets, each of which

is up to 12cm.

Leaves turn yellow, orange and scarlet in the autumn.

Twigs are covered in velvety hairs.

The trunk is much branched.

Shallow roots readily produce aerial suckers.

In the wild, most naturalised thickets are made up of either

male or female trees, so few fertilised fruits are formed.

Spread is mainly by suckering and fragmentation.