Smooth sumac
Rhus glabra
Red staghorn/smooth sumac berries make a lemonade-like drink. Not poison sumac (Toxicodendron vernix), which has white berries in wet woods. Identify before you brew.
GROW → HARVEST → EAT → DRY → POWDER → CAPSULE → GUMMY — forms are not equivalent. Food first.
Identity
Also called: sumac (Rhus)
What it is
Red staghorn/smooth sumac berries make a lemonade-like drink. Not poison sumac (Toxicodendron vernix), which has white berries in wet woods. Identify before you brew.
Identification
Red fuzzy or smooth upright berry clusters; compound leaves; old fields.
Edible portions
- sour red berry clusters as a drink/spice
Absence of a portion from this list means it is not treated as food here — not that every other part is toxic.
Growing
- Climate. 3–9
- Light. Full sun
- Soil. Average, even poor
- Planting. Colonizes; a native thicket plant.
- Harvest. Red clusters in late summer before rain washes the acid.
Preparation and culinary uses
- Cold-soaked ‘sumac-ade’
- Ground dried berries as a sour spice (related Rhus coriaria is the Mediterranean spice)
Safety
- White-berried poison sumac is a different plant. Red upright clusters on Rhus glabra/typhina are the forage.
Next steps
Sources
- USDA PLANTS Database — taxonomy and range (verify current entries)
- No USDA FoodData Central nutrient profile is attached here. That is not a claim that the plant contains no nutrients.
- State cooperative extension growing guides — verify for your region
Honest incompleteness is preferred to fabricated completeness. If a section is missing, no record for it is attached here — not a claim that the plant lacks that characteristic, and not that it was omitted as a secret.
Internal quality class A. Strong page: distinctive plant facts plus practical growing or kitchen use.