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| Yesterday, I found colonies of small shrubs that ranged from 1.5 to 8 feet tall. Most were close to creeks, with some in bright sun and others along the edge of the woods.
Stems had a fuzzy appearance, and were light tan with pink highlights as shown below. Leaves were alternate along the stem, with flattened ends where they connected to the trunk. They averaged 11 leaflets per side, and had a terminal leaflet at the end. Leaflets were mostly opposite, almost sessile, rounded at the bottom, serrate, and pointed at the end. They were glabrous and dark green above, light green, covered with downy hairs and glaucous below. The leaf I measured was 26.5 inches long, with leaflets to 5.5 inches long by 2 inches wide. When a leaflet was torn off the leaf, the stem exuded a sticky, off-white sap. They reminded me of Sumac, but did not have winged leaves. I did not find any flowers or fruit.
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Follow-Up Postings:
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| Quick search indicates Rhus typhina produces a stick white sap. |
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| Probably Rhus glabra, smooth sumac. |
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- Posted by fatamorgana Zone 5/6 (My Page) on Tue, Aug 21, 12 at 9:58
| Sumac to be sure. I agree with Lycopus as to species. It doesn't have the characteristic fuzz that the staghorn sumac has. I attached a close-up of a young R. typhina branch below. The fuzz is very visible. FataMorgana
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| Thanks for the clarification. I checked Weakley's key, and confirmed those plants are probably R. glabra. This started because I found some 20 foot trees that were currently flowering, and thought that they could be Rhus lanceolata. That species is the only one that should have flowers at this time. But R. lanceolata is only expected for Texas, New Mexico, and Oklahoma, and has not been documented in Arkansas to date. The plants were in a deep ravine, with signs posted for dangerous snakes, so were pretty much inaccessible. So I went hunting for similar examples. The smaller shrubs had the same look, so I thought they could be the same species. You've cleared that up, but I still don't know if I've found a very large, late-flowering R. glabra, or a really unusual, R. lanceolata. Here's a distant photo of the original specimen which seems to be currently flowering.
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