Plant Family: Anacardiaceae
Growth Form: Shrub to small tree, up to 5 meters tall.
Leaves: Alternate, once-compound, large, from 15 to 30 cm long, with 7 to 13 elliptic to obovate leaflets, petioles swollen where they attach to the stems.
Bark: Dark gray, smooth, with horizontal lenticels; U-shaped leaf scars present.
Flowers: Dioecious, greenish-yellow, in loose clusters in the leaf axils, May to July.
Fruits: White or yellow drupes, to 1 cm in diameter, in long-stalked open clusters in the leaf axils, seen from late summer into winter.
Habitat: Understory and borders of deciduous swamps.
Range: Throughout New England, ranging west to Minnesota and south to Florida and Texas.
Key Feature: The large compound leaves with untoothed leaflets will separate Poison Sumac from other alternate-leaved species.
Comments: Poison Sumac is an obligate wetland plant found only in deciduous swamps. All parts of the plant can cause contact dermatitis. Formerly classified as Rhus vernix.
