Searsia paniculata

Description

Sumac, also spelled sumach and sumaq, is any one of about 35 species of flowering plants in the genus Rhus and related genera, in the family Anacardiaceae. Sumac grows in subtropical and temperate regions throughout the world, especially in East Asia, Africa, and North America. Sumacs are shrubs and small trees that can reach a height of 1–10 m (3.3–32.8 ft). The leaves are spirally arranged; they are usually pinnately compound, though some species have trifoliate or simple leaves. The flowers are in dense panicles or spikes 5–30 cm (2.0–11.8 in) long, each flower very small, greenish, creamy white or red, with five petals. The fruits form dense clusters of reddish drupes called sumac bobs. The dried drupes of some species are ground to produce a tangy, crimson spice. This shrub or low tree, belonging to the family Anacardiadeae, which includes the terebinth and the pistachio, grows wild in the groves of Israel. The tree is dioecious, with pinnate leaves containing a high proportion of tannin which is used in the manufacture of leather, whence its Hebrew name og ha-bursaka'im ("tanner's sumac"). The female trees bear reddish fruits (in Syriac sumac means 'red') arranged in dense clusters. The fruits are shaped like lentils, and are hairy with an acrid taste. It is used as a spice by some Asian communities, and was used in the Colonial United States (giving rise to the tradition of "pink lemonade"), and in present-day North America. Its fruits (Rhus typhina, staghorn sumac), soaked in cold water, make a refreshing, vitamin C-rich beverage. It was cultivated in mishnaic times and is therefore reckoned with those fruits to which the law of pe'ah applied (Pe'ah 1:5), but in Israel, where it grew wild abundantly, it was not very highly valued and a lenient attitude was adopted about. Sumacs propagate both by seed (spread by birds and other animals through their droppings), and by new shoots from rhizomes, forming large clonal colonies.