What it is
Flameleaf Sumac (Rhus lanceolata) is in the Anacardiaceae (Cashew) family. Blazing red fall color and fuzzy red berry clusters that make sumac-ade - a lemony trail drink Texans have brewed for generations.
How to grow it
It wants full sun, water it very low, and give it poor, rocky, sandy soil. Target a soil pH around 6.0-8.0. Space plants about 10 ft apart. Expect roughly Berries late summer. Hardy native.
How it's used
Flameleaf Sumac is used: berry clusters steeped for 'sumac-ade'; spice.
🔎 How to identify it
- Compound leaves with winged midrib between leaflets
- Upright cone-shaped clusters of fuzzy dark-red berries
- Brilliant scarlet fall foliage
Edibility
How to grow & propagate flameleaf sumac
Everything I've worked out about starting this one, keeping it alive through a Texas year, and turning one plant into many — free.
How to propagate flameleaf sumac
Flameleaf Sumac comes up from seed and, once it's a few years old, can be lifted and divided in cool weather to make more plants and keep the clump vigorous.
Growing flameleaf sumac in Texas
Give it full sun and poor, rocky, sandy soil. Match the spot to the plant and most of the battle is already won.
Because it's a perennial, the work is mostly up front. Get it sited and established and it comes back on its own year after year — one of the best returns on effort in the whole garden.
Once it's rooted in, this is a low-water plant — overwatering does more harm than drought here. Water deeply to establish, then back off and let it prove how tough it is.
Harvesting
Figure on roughly berries late summer before you're harvesting. The part you're after: red berry clusters (steeped, strained).
Making more for free
Every seed we sell is open-pollinated, which means you can save your own from the best plants and it'll grow true next year. Let a few of your strongest plants finish and go to seed, dry it fully, and store it cool and dark. That's the whole point of heirlooms — buy once, grow forever.
Part of the free Texas Roots plant database, compiled by Jordan Polasek from his greenhouse in El Campo, Texas. Free to read and share. If it helped, the best thanks is to grow something.