Plant Family: Anacardiaceae
Growth Form: Deciduous shrub to small tree that tends to form open thickets.
Leaves: Alternate, once-compound, up to 50 cm long, there are 11 to 31 toothed leaflets, turning red in the fall.
Bark: Dark gray, smooth, with raised lenticels, the twigs and branches are velvety hairy, like growing deer antlers.
Flowers: Yellow-white, in large terminal panicles; May to June.
Fruits: Dark red, hairy, individually to 1 cm, but held in large pyramidal terminal clusters; fall into winter.
Habitat: Dry overgrown fields, woodland openings, roadsides, prefers full sun.
Range: Common throughout New England and most of the eastern United States and Canada.
Similar Species: Smooth Sumac has twigs and branches that are hairless.
Comments: The leaves are among the first to turn red or orange in early autumn, making a thicket of these trees quite noticeable. Staghorn Sumac is an important food plant for many birds, which eat the seeds, and for deer and small mammals, which browse the leaves and twigs.
