Skunkbush - Sumac

Note: For check out, you’ll be asked to select a Pick Up and Return date.  Please select today’s date at the Pick Up date, and Friday, April 10th as the Return Date. Plants will be available for pick up mid-April.  We will email you to confirm pick up date.  Please call Neva at 970-508-0674 for any questions. 

These seedlings are sold as bareroot and are 6-10" tall.  

(Wikipedia) The twigs are fuzzy when new, and turn sleek with age. The leaves are up to 1.5 centimetres (1⁄2 in) long and produce a very strong odour when crushed. The aroma is bitter and often disagreeable (earning the plant the name skunkbush).

The leaves are green when new and turn orange and brown in the fall. The flowers, borne on small catkins ("short shoots"), are yellowish-green and pollinated by animals.

The plant yields hairy and slightly sticky reddish-orange berries which have an aroma similar to limes and a very sour taste. The acidity comes from tannic and gallic acids. The seeds are dispersed by animals that eat the berries. The shrub also reproduces vegetatively, sending up sprouts several meters away and forming thickets.

The berries are an important food source in winter for many birds and some small mammals.

The skunkbush sumac has historically been used for medicinal and other purposes. The bark has been chewed or brewed into a drink for cold symptoms, the berries eaten for gastrointestinal complaints and toothache, and the leaves and roots boiled and eaten for many complaints. The leaves have also been smoked. The flexible branches were useful and sought after for twisting into basketry and rugs. The berries, although sour, are edible. They can be baked into bread or mixed into porridge or soup. Steeped, they can make a tea or tart beverage similar to lemonade. The fruit can also be eaten directly, although a bit of salt may improve the flavor.

According to Marvin Johnson Jr, a Mono native from Cold Springs Rancheria (a federally recognized tribe from Tollhouse, California), the fruit will last all year long if you have flats full and dry them out. He goes on to say, once you're ready to eat them, just add a little moisture.

It is sometimes planted for erosion control and landscaping, and is a plant used for reclaiming barren land stripped by mining.

The Zuni people, Navajo, Mono tribe of California, and other tribes in the area use the stems with the bark removed to make baskets. The Uncompahgre Ute name for the berries is mah wup, and the bush is called ece.