Staghorn Sumac, Velvet Sumac

It is a lovely native shrub or small, multi-trunk tree that is still common over a wide range in NA. It has compound foliage like Black W...Read Morealnut or even similar to the horrible Tree-of-Heaven from China, where it should have stayed. This sumac's twigs are densely hairy and it grows bigger than the similar Smooth Sumac that has hairless twigs. It develops a great red autumn color. Its red fruit, on female plants, feeds birds and other wildlife. It is not eaten by deer, which is why it is still doing well, liking upland, dry soils best. It ground suckers a lot to make a colony, so it is not for small, refined landscapes, but great for big ones, naturalistic ones, or parks.

This suckering shrub is commonly confused with saplings of the weedy, widely invasive tree-of-heaven, Ailanthus altissima---as in the one...Read More negative review below.

Staghorn sumac suckers from wide-spreading roots to form large multistemmed colonies many yards across---rather like bamboo. It's not a plant for a small residential yard or garden, unless you confine the roots or enjoy the never-ending job of pulling out sumac suckers. It does not mix well with other shrubs or perennials in a border or foundation planting.

Its spread can be arrested by a metal or heavy plastic root barrier a foot deep. This will have a dwarfing effect. Eventually the colony will decline, the soil will need renewal, and some suckers will need replanting.

It's a tough, drought-tolerant plant that's excellent for highway medians and banks and other large sunny spaces. In a large lawn or campus setting, a clump can be controlled like bamboo by mowing around it. If you have the room to grow it, you might consider the cutleaf cultivars like Tiger Eyes TM.

In late summer to early fall, the leaves are the first to turn---a fiery orange-to-red.

In the garden, it can be aggressive, but it is not invasive in natural areas, and it appears on no state invasive plant or noxious weed list. The Wisconsin DNR recommends planting it where space is available: http://dnr.wi.gov/files/pdf/pubs/wm/wm0223_a.pdf

Am gold going to have to get one of these for my tropical back yard. I all ready have the smooth sumac seeds on the way. But, its better ...Read Morethan the Tree of heaven sumac... can't kill the tree even if you try. On the other hand if you have the Navite type that look like the tree of heaven then your good to go in my book. Only player this sumac or the smooth sumac. Then again there maybe a crazy person who plants the posion sumac.

I have a 40' Staghorn Sumac in my front yard with a 24" diameter trunk. There are a few issues with it: it drops thousands of seeds a ye...Read Morear, leaving me to yank out 5-6 trash cans filled with saplings each year from my yard. In the spring, the pollen casts a horrible stench over my whole yard. If it wasn't for the shade it provides, I would have it removed tomorrow and replaced with a hardwood sapling.

At my old house, the woods bordering my 3 acre yard were filled with them, I had to run a brush hog around the perimeter of the yard to keep them from taking over. They seem to be able to grow almost a foot high in less than a week. Thankfully, the soft wood makes them easy to mow and the straight taproot makes them pretty easy to pull, after wiggling them loose.