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Harmless🍽️ Edible💊 Medicinal

🌳 Staghorn sumac

Rhus typhina · Anacardiaceae

🍁 North America
🧠 To remember it“Red upright cone, squeeze it at home; white hanging cluster, leave it to bluster” — instantly distinguishes edible sumac from poison sumac.
Staghorn sumac — Rhus typhina

🔍 Identify it without mistakes

Small tree or large shrub forming dense colonies, with twigs covered in velvety hair resembling deer antlers in velvet (hence 'staghorn'). Large compound leaves with 11-31 toothed leaflets, turning spectacularly red in autumn. Velvety red fruits grouped in a compact, upright cone at the tips of the branches, persisting all winter.

  1. velvety hairy twigs resembling deer antlers in velvet
  2. compound leaf with numerous toothed leaflets arranged in a row
  3. velvety red fruits in a compact, upright cone
  4. milky white sap
Size3-8 m
FloweringJune-July, red fruits from summer to winter
Habitatwastelands, roadsides, forest edges, poor and sunny soils, from Quebec to the Southeast

⚠️ Not to be confused with

Poison sumac (Toxicodendron vernix)poison sumac is toxic through contact

To tell them apart: cone of RED and upright fruits on staghorn sumac vs. clusters of WHITE and DROOPING berries on poison sumac; staghorn sumac grows in dry, sunny soil, poison sumac almost exclusively in marshes and bogs

Poison ivy (Toxicodendron radicans)none for staghorn sumac

To tell them apart: staghorn sumac has compound leaves made of numerous elongated, comb-like leaflets and upright, velvety red fruit cones, very different from the 3 simple leaflets of poison ivy

🍽️ Eating it

Partsfruits (red drupes)
Seasonsummer to autumn, before rains wash away the acidity
Tastetart, lemony, slightly astringent

Preparation : steep crushed red fruit clusters in cold water (never hot, which releases bitter tannins) for 15-20 minutes, strain through cloth to catch irritating hairs, lightly sweeten: a drink known as 'Indian lemonade' or 'sumacade'; dried and ground fruits also yield the sumac spice used in Middle Eastern cooking (same genus Rhus, different species)

💊 Healing with it

bark or root tea traditionally used for sore throats, fever, and as a diuretic; fruits chewed or used as a gargle for mouth ulcers

Level of evidence : traditional use — Native American Ethnobotany Database (Moerman, University of Michigan)

⚠️ always use cold water to infuse the fruits, never hot

🪓 Other bushcraft uses

  • hollow stems used as spouts (spiles) to collect maple sap
  • bark and leaves rich in tannins used for leather tanning
  • black dye extracted from the bark and leaves
Sources (3)

No entry replaces a certain identification in the field, or medical advice. When in doubt: don't eat it. If ingestion is suspected: poison control or 112/911.