Staghorn sumac

Rhus typhina

Also: Velvet sumac, Vinegar tree

CoolingDryingTonifying

Sour red berries that cool, tighten, and fortify.

A spreading native shrub with fuzzy branches like a stag's antlers in velvet, long feathery leaves that blaze scarlet in autumn, and upright cones of crimson berries. The berries are sour, cooling, and rich in vitamin C; the leaves and bark are astringent.

Energetics: Cooling, drying, toning
Taste: Sour, astringent
Family: Anacardiaceae (cashew family)
Parts used: Berries, leaves, and bark

Medicinal uses 4

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Traditional useLab and mechanism studiesClinical studies

Frequent colds & low immunityTLC
A daily sour drink of the berries through the cold season builds resistance to colds and flu.
Sore throatTLC
A cool berry infusion makes a soothing, astringent gargle.
Loose bowelsTLC
The astringent leaves and bark firm loose bowels.
Fluid retentionTLC
A leaf tea moves stagnant water and eases swelling.

Preparations

Cold berry drinks, leaf tincture, and ground berries as a spice.

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Cautions

Know your sumac. Poison sumac grows in swamps and has smooth bark and drooping clusters of white berries; staghorn sumac has fuzzy branches and upright red berry cones.
People allergic to cashews or mangoes, in the same family, may react.
The bark is very drying; use it only for short periods.

Medication interactions

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Pregnancy & breastfeeding

PregnancyBerries as food

Sumac berry drinks are a traditional wild food. The leaf and bark, more strongly medicinal, have not been studied in pregnancy, so keep to the berries.

BreastfeedingBerries as food

Berry drinks are a traditional food; leaf and bark have not been studied in nursing.

Folklore

Native nations and later settlers soaked the berries into a sour pink drink; the tang comes from malic acid on the berries' hairs, which rain washes away, so the best clusters are picked before a heavy storm. The tannin-rich leaves were long used to tan leather and dye wool. Sumac comes through Arabic from the Aramaic summaq, red.

How to grow

A fast, suckering shrub for sun and poor, dry soil that spreads into colonies. Plants are male or female, and only females bear berries. Gather the cones in late summer, before heavy rain, when a licked finger touched to them tastes sour.

In the wild

Old fields, roadsides, forest edges, and railway banks of eastern North America, from Nova Scotia and Quebec to Georgia and west to Minnesota.

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