Rhus copallina L.

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Credits

Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles

Recommended citation
'Rhus copallina' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/rhus/rhus-copallina/). Accessed 2024-03-29.

Genus

Common Names

  • Dwarf Sumach

Glossary

entire
With an unbroken margin.
lanceolate
Lance-shaped; broadest in middle tapering to point.
panicle
A much-branched inflorescence. paniculate Having the form of a panicle.
imparipinnate
Odd-pinnate; (of a compound leaf) with a central rachis and an uneven number of leaflets due to the presence of a terminal leaflet. (Cf. paripinnate.)
unisexual
Having only male or female organs in a flower.

References

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Credits

Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles

Recommended citation
'Rhus copallina' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/rhus/rhus-copallina/). Accessed 2024-03-29.

A deciduous shrub rarely more than 4 ft high in this country, but said to become a small tree 25 to 30 ft high in the southern United State; branchlets covered with a fine reddish down. Leaves pinnate, composed of nine to fifteen (occasionally more) leaflets, the common stalk being winged on both sides between the leaflets, which are stalkless (or the basal ones shortly stalked), lanceolate, 2 to 312 in. long, rarely toothed, dark glossy green above, paler and downy beneath, the lower leaflets the smallest. Flowers greenish yellow, unisexual, produced in crowded pyramidal panicles 4 to 6 in. long, 3 to 4 in. wide, the female panicle normally the smaller. Fruits bright red, hairy.

Widely spread in eastern N. America, this species varies considerably in a wild state. The form cultivated in Britain is, no doubt, the shrubby northern one. American writers describe it as being of singular beauty, its foliage dying off a rich reddish purple which, with the scarlet fruits of the female tree, gives a charming combination of colour. It flowers in July and August. Introduced to England and cultivated in the Fulham Palace grounds in 1688. Distinct because of its entire leaflets and winged stalk.