Rhus lanceolata

Rhus lanceolata, the prairie sumac, is a species of plant native to the south-western United States (Texas, Oklahoma, Arizona, New Mexico), and northern Mexico (Coahuila, Nuevo León and Tamaulipas).Virginia Tech Plant Data Sheet US Geological Survey, Geosciences and Environmental Change Science Center, Digital Representations of Tree Species Range Maps, Rhus lanceolata

Rhus lanceolata is a shrub or small tree up to 9 m (30 feet) tall, reproducing by means of underground rhizomes. Leaves are pinnately compound with 13-17 lanceolate leaflets and a winged rachis. Leaflets are entire (untoothed) or with small teeth, green and shiny above but whitish and pubescent below. Flowers are born in a panicle up to 14 cm (5.6 inches) tall. Flowers are white to greenish. Fruits are lens-shaped, about 6 mm (0.25 inches) across, dark red and hairy.Correll, D. S. & M. C. Johnston. 1970. Manual of the Vascular Plants of Texas i–xv, 1–1881. The University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson.Britton, Nathaniel Lord, & Shafer, John Adolph. 1908. North American Trees 606.Small, John Kunkel. 1903. Flora of the Southeastern United States. University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill.Texas Native Plants Database, Aggie horticulture, Texas A&M UniversityUniversity of Texas, BIO406D, Introduction to the Flora of Central Texas, Michael Gruenstaeudl, Rhus lanceolata

Uses Birds eat the fruit during the winter, and deer forage the foliage. The tannin-containing leaves have been used to tan leather.

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