Rhus hirta

Native

Dry. Abandoned fields, forest edges, thickets, roadsides. Full sun.

Early June to mid-July

Yellowish-green

4′ to 15′

This is a fast-growing, 4′ to 15′ tall shrub or, rarely, small tree. It rises on a single trunk from long-creeping branched rhizomes. In Minnesota mature plants are usually 4′ to 15′ tall and 2″ to 4″ in diameter. Large individuals can reach over 32′ in height and 8″ in diameter. It often forms dense colonies with the oldest and tallest individuals in the center surrounded by progressively younger and shorter individuals. It is a short-lived tree, usually surviving no more than 50 years.

The trunk is forked and occasionally branched. The crown is open, irregular, and rounded or flat-topped.

The bark on young parts is thin, smooth, and dark brown to yellowish-brown with prominent lenticels. As it ages it becomes slightly scaly.

The upper branchlets are densely covered with with short, brown, hairs. The lower trunk and branches are hairless and woody. In winter the leafless, velvety branches have the appearance of antlers on a buck deer, giving the plant its common name.

The twigs are very stout, tan to slightly reddish, and densely hairy. Older branches have prominent lenticels, while younger branches and twigs do not. When broken the branches exude a yellowish sap.

There is no terminal bud—the branches end in a cluster of fruits or a dead stub. The lateral buds are cone-shaped, 3 ⁄16″ to ¼″ long, and covered with pale brown, velvety hairs. The leaf scar is crescent or horse-shoe shaped and has 3 bundle scars. The leaf scar almost completely surrounds the bud.

The leaves are deciduous, alternate, and pinnately compound. They are 12″ to 24″ long and are divided into 11 to 31 leaflets. They are on 1¼″ to 4″ long, densely woolly or felty leaf stalks. The central stalk of the leaf to which the leaflets are attached is slightly reddish and densely hairy and is not winged.

The leaflets are stalkless or on very short stalks. They are arranged in opposite or slightly alternate pairs with 1 terminal leaflet. They are lance-shaped, 2″ to 4¾″ long, and ¾″ to 1¾″ wide. They are rounded or slightly heart-shaped at the base and taper to a long point at the tip. The upper surface is dark green and nearly hairless. The lower surface is pale green to sometimes nearly white, moderately to densely hairy along the veins, and covered with a whitish, waxy coating (glaucous). The margins have fine, sharp, forward-pointing teeth or are rarely pinnately lobed. In autumn the leaves turn bright orange, red, or purple.

Male and female flowers are borne on separate plants. The inflorescence is a dense, erect, 2¾″ to 10″ long, 1½″ to 2″ wide, branched cluster (panicle) at the end of many of the branchlets. Each panicle is made up of 100 to 700 flowers. Female panicles are more compact than male panicles.

The flowers are tiny and yellowish-green. They appear in early June to mid-July after the leaves are fully developed.

The fruit is fleshy and surrounds a single seed (drupe). It is dark red, ⅛″ to 3 ⁄16″ long and wide, and covered with bright red, needle-like hairs. They are held in dense, upright clusters. They ripen from August to September and persist for most of the winter.

Smooth sumac (Rhus glabra) branches, twigs, and rachis are hairless. The drupes are hairless but densely covered with short, nipple-like bumps.