Handbook of Nature-Study · Lesson CCVI · Topic 31: Flowering shrubs and small trees
206. The staghorn sumac
Goal: Your child can recognize staghorn sumac by its velvet twigs, long leaves of many leaflets and red fruit "bobs," and can tell it from poison sumac.
You'll need
- A staghorn sumac to visit
- A hand lens (magnifying glass)
- A nature notebook and a pencil (colored pencils if you have them)
- Watercolors or crayons
What's in the book
The lesson has a leading thought and ten observations: the velvet on the stems, the leaves and leaflets, the fruit "bob" and its seeds, winter branching, the two kinds of flowers in June, and how to tell this sumac from the smooth and the poison sumacs.
The lesson, step by step
Safety first, and when to go
Learn poison sumac (and poison ivy) before you go. Poison sumac grows in swamps and wet ground, has smooth-edged leaflets and loose, drooping clusters of whitish berries, and gives a bad rash. Staghorn sumac grows in dry, open places and has upright, fuzzy red clusters. The book asks children to taste a seed; we skip that.
Begin in October when the leaves turn scarlet. Come back in winter to sketch the bare branches and red bobs, and in June for the flowers. Look along roadsides, fencerows and dry field edges.
The leading thought
The sumac is a beautiful shrub in summer because of its fern-like leaves; it is picturesque in winter, and its colors in autumn are most brilliant. Its dark red fruit clusters remain upon it during the entire winter.
The velvet
Why is this called the velvet sumac? Why is it called the staghorn sumac? Look at the stems with a lens and describe the velvet. Can you tell this year's wood by the velvet?
Leaves
How many leaflets are there on the longest leaf which you can find? How many on the shortest?
Draw an entire leaf, and color it as exactly as possible.
The bob and the branching
Study the fruit. Pick one of the bobs and note its general shape. Is it smooth or bunchy?
Study the sumac after the leaves have fallen and sketch it. What is there peculiar in its branching?
Tell them apart
How can you tell the velvet or staghorn sumac from the smooth sumac? How can you tell both of these from the poison sumac?
Nature notebook
Paint one autumn leaf in its true colors and sketch a bare winter branch with its bob, like a deer's antler in velvet.
Answers to the book's problems
The young twigs are covered with soft hairs like the velvet on a deer's new antlers, and the branches fork like antlers. Smooth sumac looks similar but its twigs have no hairs. Poison sumac grows in wet places, has smooth-edged leaflets and hanging clusters of whitish berries; staghorn and smooth sumacs have toothed leaflets and upright red clusters.
Worked out for this site from the scan. If a number in your copy differs, trust the book.