Alternate name: Prairie Flameleaf Sumac, Texan Sumac, Lanceleaf Sumac

Family: Anacardiaceae, Cashew view all from this family

Description Large shrub or small tree with short trunk and open, rounded crown of foliage turning flame-colored in autumn.
Height: 25' (7.6 m).
Diameter: 6" (15 cm).
Leaves: pinnately compound; to 9" (23 cm) long; with flat narrowly winged axis. Usually 13-19 leaflets 1-2 1/2" (2.5-6 cm) long, less than 1/2" (12 mm) wide; paired (except at end); narrowly lance-shaped; slightly curved; long-pointed at tip; blunt and unequal at base; usually without teeth. Shiny dark green above; paler, covered with fine hairs, and with prominent veins beneath; turning reddish-purple in autumn.
Bark: gray or brown; smooth or becoming scaly.
Twigs: green or reddish and hairy when young, becoming gray and hairless; stout, ending in whitish hairy bud.
Flowers: 3/16" (5 mm) wide; with 5 greenish-white petals; crowded in upright clusters to 6" (15 cm) long, composed of many flowers, at ends of twigs; male and female usually on separate plants; in summer.
Fruit: about 3/16" (5 mm) in diameter; slightly flattened, dark red, covered with short sticky red hairs, 1-seeded; numerous, crowded in clusters; maturing in early autumn and falling in early winter.

Habitat Dry rocky slopes and hills, especially limestone; often forming thickets.

Range Texas and S. New Mexico, local in S. Oklahoma and in NE. Mexico; to 2500' (762 m); locally to 4000' (1219 m).

Discussion Birds, especially bobwhites, grouse, and pheasants, consume quantities of the fruit in winter, and deer browse the foliage. The leaves contain tannin and have been used in tanning leather.