Native American Herbal, Plant Knowledge

Red sumac doesn't get its name from its colorful berry spike, but from the

way its leaves change to bright red well ahead of most fall foliage. Here a

cluster of them is in a Wisconsin woodland, getting the jump on autumn at

summer's end.

Sumac doesn't grow only as a shrubby bush, as it does around here. In

warmer areas, on low foothills, it grows into a slender-trunked, attractive

tree. This one was photographed somewhere in the southwest, apparently at

night, one of what appears to be a group of them.

Multi-tribal uses of Sumac tabulated in an active table from AGIS. By clicking on a

tree or tribe, find out more by references to written reports. Note that almost all the

Iroquois uses -- the ones Katsi refers to but doesn't say much about -- come from

one man's 1977 PhD thsis, and do not give any direct connections to tribal

informants.

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Phytochemical analysis for Red Sumac from the AGIS database is quite

disappointing, since it does not show much nutrient content (we know from other

sources that Vitamin C is very high), and does not appear motivated by much

interest in the berries, which were widely used as a dependable source of a vitamin

C-rich winter drink, and later used by native women in making jams, jellies and pies

that needed a sharpened, acidic taste. You don't have to buy lemons in a

non-money economy if you have a supply of red sumac berries to make a

sharp-tasting juice of.

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CREDITS: The red sumac photos are from the University of Wisconsin (Madison)

botany gopher. The sumac tree was photographed by Michael Moore, editor of

Herbalgram published by the American Botanical Council, and maintainer of the

Herb Research Foundation's web page. Moore teaches classes in natural plant

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Rhus Glabra (smooth sumac) IDs, general info

http://www.kstrom.net/isk/food/rhustrib.html (2 of 3) [5/17/2004 11:51:19 AM]