Smooth sumac, a native tall shrub or small tree with a sparse, flattened crown, growing to 20 ft. in height, is the most common sumac. It is the only tree or shrub species native to all 48 contiguous states of the United States.

BUDS: Hairy; surrounded by U-shaped leaf scars.

TWIGS: Smooth and shiny, 3-sided; gray with whitish bloom; few and stout.

BARK: Brown and smooth.

HABITAT: Open uplands, especially in waste places and edges of fields; sandy soils.

RANGE: Eastern Saskatchewan east to southern Ontario and Maine, south to northwestern Florida, west to central Texas. In the mountains from British Columbia to Arizona and New Mexico.

USES: The sour fruit can be chewed to quench thirst or prepared into a lemonade-like drink. Fruit a food source of birds, small mammals, deer.