Prairie Flameleaf Sumac (Rhus lanceolata)

Rhus lanceolata (A. Gray) Britton

Prairie Flameleaf Sumac, Flameleaf Sumac, Prairie Sumac, Lance-leaf Sumac, Lance-leaved Sumac, Texas Sumac, Tree Sumac, Limestone Sumac, Prairie Shining Sumac

Anacardiaceae (Sumac Family)

Synonym(s): Rhus copallina var. lanceolata, Rhus copallinum var. lanceolata

USDA Symbol: rhla3

USDA Native Status: L48 (N)

Prairie Flameleaf Sumac is a thicket-forming, small, deciduous tree to 30 ft. in height, but usually no taller than 20 ft. Pyramidal panicles of red, fall fruit follow white, summer blossoms. Pinnately-compound foliage becomes vivid red or orange in fall.

Native from southern Oklahoma through north, central, and west Texas to New Mexico and south to Puebla in central Mexico, the limestone-loving Prairie Flameleaf Sumac is relatively fast growing, generally pest- and disease-free, and heat-, cold-, and drought-tolerant. Flameleaf is a perfect description of this tree's outstanding, orange and red, autumn foliage, but its pale trunk and branches, green summer leaves, and pyramidal clusters of red fall fruit are also noteworthy. Though it may sucker from the base to form a colony, it is not as likely to aggressively colonize as the more easterly Shining Sumac (Rhus copallinum). Like the very different-looking Evergreen Sumac (Rhus virens), Prairie Flameleaf Sumac produces berries that, when soaked in water, make a tart, tasty, high-Vitamin C tea.

Plant Characteristics

Benefit

Use Ornamental: Provides accent texture and vivid fall color as well as hardiness and easy maintenance. It is an excellent, relatively fast growing landscaping choice because of its ornamental fruits and fall foliage.
Use Wildlife: Birds, especially bobwhites, grouse, and pheasants, consume quantities of the fruit in winter, and deer browse the foliage.
Use Food: Fruit soaked in water used to make a lemony drink similar to a diluted lemonade, sometimes called sumac-ade.
Use Other: The leaves contain tannin and have been used in tanning leather.
Conspicuous Flowers: yes
Interesting Foliage: yes
Attracts: Birds , Butterflies
Larval Host: Red-banded Hairstreak, Banded Hairstreak
Deer Resistant: Moderate

Value to Beneficial Insects

Special Value to Native Bees
Provides Nesting Materials/Structure for Native Bees

Banded Hairstreak (Satyrium calanus) - Larval Host

Red-banded Hairstreak (Calycopis cecrops) - Larval Host