sumac: toxicity, uses for

are there any good uses for sumac trees? one amish nieghbor told me that the smoke from them is toxic. I saw that they are related to poison ivey. anyone know sumacs?
kent

I know they make me itch just walking close to them

Depends on the sumac. Poison sumac (white berries, I think, we don't have any) is poisonous but staghorn sumac (red/pink berries, slightly furry) can be infused in cool water to make a drink that tastes like raspberry lemonade. I've tried it a few times, it tastes really good. Just wrap the clump of berries in a muslin cloth or something to avoid the hairs going everywhere in your drink. Or serve through a sieve.

Some people are allergic to all sumac relatives, even the non-poisonous kind. Cashews are a sumac and some people are allergic to these nuts.

machinemaker wrote:
are there any good uses for sumac trees? one amish nieghbor told me that the smoke from them is toxic. I saw that they are related to poison ivey. anyone know sumacs?
kent

I have staghorn sumac (rhus typhina) on my property, I too have made the "Sumac-aide" from the red seed clusters and it does taste pretty much like lemon-aide.
I also like it because of its tropical appearance, it adds a bit of an exotic look to the yard.
These are an "early colonizer" tree, they tend to pop up on road zides, under powerlines.etc. They might be good for naturalizing bare ground.

(Just make sure you don't confuse with the poisonous relative Toxicodendron vernix)

I planted staghorns in my north-facing side yard path along the garage on my previous property to provide a fast-growing (i.e. 1 summer season) woodland setting where grass once struggled to survive. For Canada, they provide a welcome tropical look. Just don't try it in the full sun - they'll take off with runners all through the grass as its their nature to form a brush understory for hillsides and woodland edges. Trimming the suckers that shoot up is much more manageable in a shady area.

Sumac tea from the red berries, is quite tasty and good source of vit c, if I remember correctly.

It is possible to push in the pith out of the center of a fresh sumac branch, which might be useful if you needed a hollow tube of softwood for some purpose. Native Americans use this technique to make the stem for Sacred Pipes. White ash has a similar property, and is used in a similar way. I have read that the inner bark of Sumac was also used in some of the kinikinik mixtures smoked in the Pipe.

Sumac is good for environmental restoration - grows well on disturbed soils where erosion control is needed.

We use Sumac on Shish kebob.

We always put the seeds in our mouths and then spit out the seeds after the flavor was gone. This was in the fall after the turned bright red. Delicious.

This summer we bought about 60 plants and trees from the state, of these two were Sumac. Planted them late in the year hope they take hold and come on strong in spring. We buy Sumac from the Armenian store for use in the kitchen, be nice to have it growing.

When I was twelve, I found them to be quite useful as catapults. If you trim the branches from them and cut the top just above a "Y", you can bend the sumac over almost to the ground and it has quite a spring to it, catapulting sticks or other ammunition quite a distance. Other than that, I can't think of anything.

Ken, Years ago my friend Ronnie Butler, devised a bazooka, well, a big slingshot, made with 2"X4" materal. One boy would hold it aginst his sholder, there was also a forward handle. Ronnie held it first try, half bricks were the projectile. It was lucky he was wearing a helmet. The half brick hit in his head sending the helmet 50ft. He was not daunted, he offsat the uprights that held the inner tub and it worked.
Than when the invisible enemy jumped Cameron's fence and ran across the field to attack us waiting in the eucalypts grove by the irrigation ditch, we were able to mow them down.

You had to have been there Ken!

I saw a Cherokee woman (North Carolina) on a television show using the ground dried berries as a seasoning on some fish. She was demonstrating some traditional cooking methods. I collected some of the seeds that grow here in SC to do the same but - as with so many of my projects - never got around to trying it.

In an earlier post: We use it on Shish Kebob. I got couple sumac plants from the state last year, things are starting to sprout at the lower ranch I hope they come back.

I have the red, non-poisonous, lemonade kind. They grow like crazy around here, you find roots and shoots anywhere there isn't shade. The wood from sumac is beautiful. Like the catapult idea (an excellent one, thanks) you take small branches to bend into uprights for shelves or what not and they dry into really colourful pieces of knobby wood. I hang my keys on a piece of Sumac. So I guess that's another use for them

The dried casings aroun the seed have a lemony tast. We planted some 60 plants and trees we we purchased form the state as a wind break. I wasn't clever enought to make a plot plan so I would know which plants were which. I hope, we planted only two, to get them growing in large number. If they do well I can start more with cuttings.