# Fragrant Sumac (Rhus aromatica)

> A low, thicket-forming sumac for dry banks, with lemon-scented leaves, fuzzy red fruit for birds and orange to red fall color.

Also called aromatic sumac, lemon sumac, sweet-scented sumac. Category: Native Shrubs. Grown from seed by Blue Whale Trees. Web version: https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/fragrant-sumac/

![Fragrant sumac (Rhus aromatica) fuzzy red fruit among red autumn leaves](https://bluewhaletrees.com/img/plants/fragrant-sumac-h1610-800.jpg)
*Photo: SyGrnwd, CC BY-SA 4.0 · [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ARhus_aromatica_fruit.jpg)*

## Facts

- Type: Shrub
- Mature height: 2 to 6 ft
- USDA hardiness zones: 3 to 9
- Grows wild in: Rocky ground, dry uplands, old fields and edges
- Native range: 32 states and the District of Columbia, north to Minnesota, south to Florida and west to South Dakota (Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin and the District of Columbia). Also recorded in 1 other state, outside its native range
- Sun: Full, Part
- Soil moisture: Dry, Average
- Growth rate: Medium
- Traits: Fall color, Wildlife value, Drought tolerant, Salt tolerant, Erosion control
- Sold as: Saplings, Seed

Heights and zones are typical ranges for the species in cultivation; local conditions and seed source shift them.

## Availability

Not yet priced online. Ask at captain@bluewhaletrees.com or leave an email on the web page to be told when it is listed.

## Notes

Fragrant sumac is a low, sprawling shrub, smaller and less aggressive than smooth or staghorn sumac. Its three leaflets recall poison ivy, but it is harmless. Poison ivy's end leaflet sits on a long stalk and its berries are white and smooth, while this sumac's berries are red and fuzzy. American Indians made a tart drink from the ripe fruit. Mass it on a sunny slope too dry and rocky for grass, where its roots will hold the soil.

## Size, growth and what to expect

Its growth is rated anywhere from slow to fast, so our growth estimator uses the medium rate, about a foot and a half a year. It stands 2 to 6 feet tall and 6 to 10 feet wide in gardens. Wild plants reach 8 feet.

Yellowish flowers open from March to May, before the leaves, from catkins formed the summer before. On female plants the fuzzy red fruit, a quarter inch across, ripens from June to August and can hang on into March. Turkeys, ruffed grouse, robins and flickers eat it, along with raccoons, opossums and chipmunks. Caterpillars of the red-banded and banded hairstreaks feed on it.

It grows wild from Quebec and Vermont south to the Florida panhandle and west to South Dakota and Texas, on glades, ledges and rocky open woods. In New England it is native in Connecticut and Vermont, and the plants farther east, in Massachusetts, are considered introduced. Connecticut lists its native plants as endangered, and Indiana lists the dune variety, beach sumac, as threatened.

## How to grow Fragrant Sumac

Fragrant sumac does best in full sun and also takes part shade. It wants a well-drained soil, dry to average. It grows in clay, sand or shallow rocky ground, acid or alkaline, but not in poorly drained soil. Plant it 5 feet from a wall, and set plants 5 feet apart to cover a bank. At its size it can go within 15 feet of overhead wires.

Saplings ship bare-root or potted. Plant them dormant, from leaf fall until bud swell, in a hole wider than the roots and no deeper. Set the crown at the soil line, put the native soil back in, and keep the mulch clear of the stems. Seed has a hard coat and a dormant embryo, so nick each seed with a file before sowing. Sow it a quarter inch deep outdoors in fall. For spring, hold it damp in the refrigerator for one to three months first.

Water every week or two through the first summer, then only in long droughts. Deer and rabbits seldom bother it, though in the Missouri Ozarks deer favor it as winter browse. Every three years in late winter, cut a third of the oldest stems to the ground to keep it dense. Stems root where they touch the soil, so the planting thickens on its own.

Most plants are male or female, and only females bear the red fruit, so plant three or more seedlings for a male and a female. A patch grown from one plant's suckers is often all male or all female. Leaf spots, galls and the sumac flea beetle mar the leaves at times but do little harm. Fusarium wilt can make stems wilt, with dark streaks in the sapwood.

## Sources

- [USDA Forest Service, Fire Effects Information System: Rhus aromatica, Taylor 2004](https://www.fs.usda.gov/database/feis/plants/shrub/rhuaro/all.html)
- [USDA Forest Service, Woody Plant Seed Manual (2008), Rhus chapter, Rowe and Blazich](https://www.fs.usda.gov/nsl/Wpsm/Rhus.pdf)
- [USDA NRCS Plant Guide: Fragrant sumac, Rhus aromatica](https://plants.usda.gov/DocumentLibrary/plantguide/pdf/pg_rhar4.pdf)
- [NC State Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox: Rhus aromatica](https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/rhus-aromatica/)
- [Missouri Botanical Garden Plant Finder: Rhus aromatica](https://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/PlantFinder/PlantFinderDetails.aspx?taxonid=275952)
- [Morton Arboretum: Fragrant sumac](https://mortonarb.org/plant-and-protect/trees-and-plants/fragrant-sumac/)
- [Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center: Rhus aromatica](https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=RHAR4)
- [Cornell University Woody Plants Database: Rhus aromatica](https://woodyplants.cals.cornell.edu/plant/218)
- [Mt. Cuba Center: Fragrant sumac](https://mtcubacenter.org/plants/fragrant-sumac/)
- [Missouri Department of Conservation: Fragrant sumac](https://mdc.mo.gov/discover-nature/field-guide/fragrant-sumac)
- [Go Botany, Native Plant Trust: Rhus aromatica](https://gobotany.nativeplanttrust.org/species/rhus/aromatica/)
- [Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection: Endangered, Threatened and Special Concern Plants, effective August 5, 2015](https://portal.ct.gov/deep/endangered-species/endangered-species-listings/endangered-threatened--special-concern-plants)
- [Indiana Department of Natural Resources: Endangered, Threatened, and Extirpated Plants of Indiana, 10/29/2025](https://www.in.gov/dnr/nature-preserves/files/np-etrplants.pdf)
- [Ohio Department of Natural Resources: Rare Native Ohio Plants, 2024-25 Status List](https://dam.assets.ohio.gov/image/upload/odnr/natural-areas/2024-25_Ohio_Rare_Native_Plants_Status_List_FINAL_draft.pdf)
- [NatureServe Explorer: Rhus aromatica](https://explorer.natureserve.org/Taxon/ELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.146377/Rhus_aromatica)
- [Native Plant Network: Baskin and Baskin 2001](https://npn.rngr.net/renderNPNProtocolDetails?selectedProtocolIds=anacardiaceae-rhus-1961)
- [Virginia Tech Dendrology: fragrant sumac](https://dendro.cnre.vt.edu/dendrology/syllabus/factsheet.cfm?ID=447)

## Read before planting

- [Ten planting mistakes that quietly kill trees](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/ten-planting-mistakes/index.html.md)
- [Transplanting young trees: timing, water and protection](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/transplanting-young-trees/index.html.md)
- [Protecting young trees from voles, rabbits, deer and squirrels](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/protecting-trees-from-animals/index.html.md)
- [Native replacements for burning bush, barberry, privet, Bradford pear and boxwood](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/native-replacements-for-burning-bush-and-bradford-pear/index.html.md)
- [Native shrubs and trees deer usually leave alone, and why the lists disagree](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/native-shrubs-and-trees-deer-leave-alone/index.html.md)
- [The habitat around a tree is part of the tree](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/habitat-around-a-tree/index.html.md)

## Related

- [Planting-site check](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/site-check/index.html.md): for a thrive, struggle or fail verdict on Fragrant Sumac, add ?species=fragrant-sumac with zone (2 to 10), sun (full, part, shade) and moisture (dry, average, wet) to that address, for example ?species=fragrant-sumac&zone=3&sun=part&moisture=average.
- [Companion species for Fragrant Sumac](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/companions/index.html.md?species=fragrant-sumac): the natives that share its ground and the plants that pair with it in a yard.
- [Growth estimator](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/growth/index.html.md): how the height and trunk projections are made; the estimate itself runs in the browser at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/growth/#species=fragrant-sumac
- [Seed sowing planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/sowing/index.html.md): how Fragrant Sumac is sown, in the chart for every species (treatment, cold days, depth, timing); the dated plan runs in the browser at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/sowing/#species=fragrant-sumac
- [Pollination planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/pollination/index.html.md): what Fragrant Sumac needs for a crop and how many to plant, in the table for every species; the planner runs in the browser at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/pollination/#plants=fragrant-sumac:3
- [Bloom and fruit calendar](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/calendar/index.html.md): the months Fragrant Sumac flowers and fruits, in the grid for every species.