Rhus typhina Seeds | Staghorn Sumac
LATIN NAME: Rhus typhina
COMMON NAME: Staghorn Sumac
Plant Profile
Rhus typhina, better known as Staghorn Sumac, is a shrub in the sumac family. Staghorn sumac is velvet-antlered shrub of old field, and dense, upright panicles of greenish flowers rise above autumn leaves. Shrub is a fine, generous presence of wild patch and dry bank. It is a shrub of open, sunny, deep, well-drained ground. The flowers pull in pollinating insects, which quietly widens its usefulness in the garden. Few species give back so generously for so little effort.
Science & Biotechnology
The species features in the wider study of the sumac family, and its traits make it a useful subject for work on germination biology, cultivation and ornamental selection. With present-day seed handling, raising this species well within the reach of any careful grower.
Uses & Benefits
In the garden, Staghorn Sumac earns its place in borders, containers and mixed plantings, and it also rewards growers who raise plants for cutting, drying or kitchen use. Staghorn sumac is a fine, bold shrub of wild patch and dry bank. It has been written up in horticultural and botanical papers for red clusters and autumn flames, and it is a fine, bold shrub of open, sunny, deep, well-drained garden. Choose spot with room for suckers, or keep roots within edge, for shrub spreads wide. Thereafter it wants only the ordinary attentions any garden plant receives.
Sumacs give the tangy, vitamin-C-rich red spice of Middle Eastern cooking and the traditional sumac-ade of North America; their tannins tanned leather and dyed cloth for millennia.
Growing from Seed
Seed is the natural starting point for Staghorn Sumac, and the process is uncomplicated. Fill a pot with a light seed compost, sow evenly on the surface, cover thinly and stand it somewhere warm, bright and evenly moist. Pot the young plants on as they grow, harden them off gradually, and plant them into their final positions when sturdy.
Our Take
Staghorn Sumac repays a little patience at sowing time with plenty of garden presence later.
Related Reading
More species in the same orbit as Staghorn Sumac: