This article is part of
Wilderness Way
VOLUME 8, ISSUE 2.
You may view more
articles here or order
this issue or a
subscription here.
The Versatile
Sumac
by Jim Lowery
Three sumac species, lemonade berry (Rhus integrifolia), sugar bush (Rhus ovata) and basket bush (Rhus trilobata) are closely related shrubs common to Southern California, occurring in the coastal sage scrub, chaparral, and oak woodland below about 2,500 feet. All have tiny flowers with five petals and five sepals clustered at the ends of the stems. The flowers of lemonade berry are white to pink; those of sugar bush are white; and those of basket bush are yellow. The fruits of all three are red, hairy, and sticky. The sumacs can all be used for medicine and food in essentially the same ways.
It is important to make a positive identification of any plant before using it. Here are some useful tips:
Basket bush (Rhus trilobata) grows in canyon bottoms and wet shady areas. It is a deciduous shrub with compound leaves. That is, each leaf is made of three leaflets. In a way, basket bush resembles poison oak in this regard, In fact, poison oak used to be in the Rhus genus before it was reclassified as Toxidendron diversilobuun. A careful look at the middle of the three leaflets will usually tell the difference. The leaflet is lobed on the basket bush, while it is not lobed on poison oak. When fruiting, there will be no confusion, because basket bush has red, sticky, hairy fruit, and the fruit on poison oak is white and berry-like. In the dormant season, the naked stems of both plants can look alike.
The other two sumacs are evergreen, and may grow literally next to one another along a chaparral trail. To complicate matters more, there is another plant called "laurel sumac" that resembles the sugar bush and may grow next to these. Laurel sumac was recently taken out of the Rhus genus and renamed Malosma laurina. Laurel sumac wood makes a good bow drill set for a friction fire, but it is not edible or medicinal, as are the real sumacs. Here is some identification tips for these three species:
Lemonade berry (Rhus integrifolia): Leaves are flat and leathery, one to two inches long, and sometimes serrated.
Sugar bush (Rhus ovata): Leaves are also leathery, but smooth, pointed at the end, and folded along the midrib.
Laurel sumac (Malosma laurina): Leaves are also folded like a taco, but are soft and pliable rather than leathery. In addition, the flowering stems look like miniature trees. In fact, model railroad enthusiasts to simulate such use them. The sugar bush flowering stems are more separated and droopy.
Food
Ripe berries of the sugar bush, lemonade berry, or basket bush can be soaked in hot water to produce a tart lemon-tasting beverage. Steeping in almost boiling water produces a stronger drink than steeping in sun-heated water. For a strong drink, you will need a ratio of one-part berries to two parts water.
These berries make a tart snack if picked right off of the bush, but only if sucked for their juice; the pulp is not swallowed.
The dried berries can be ground into flour and added to soup.
The Cahuilla and other California native people ate the fruits of sugar bush and lemonade berry raw. They soaked the berries in water to make a beverage, and ground the dried berries into flour for a mush or to add to soup.
Basketry
The thin pliable stems of the basket bush have been widely used for making baskets, cradle boards, and seed beaters. Bundles of stems are used as a foundation for coiled baskets, like the Mescalero Apache tray pictured above, and stitched with yucca. Sumac stems are also split into three strips, sized, and then used as the weaver for twined baskets in other traditions.
Dye
Basket bush makes the best Indian black dye. Small twigs are rolled up with their leaves, and used either fresh or dried, boiled together with pinion pine pitch and yellow ochre.
Medicine
The leaves of lemonade berry, sugar bush, and basket bush can be dried, pounded into a powder, and then, mixed 1:2 with Vaseline to produce an excellent external salve for treatment of "all types of muco-epithelial sores--from fissures to ulcers to mechanical injuries, on the lips, mouth membranes, genitals or nostril membranes. This acts to soothe, shrink, and mildly disinfect," according to Michael Moore author of Medicinal Plants of the Desert and Canyon West. Also, the powder can be prepared in a glycerin tincture or used by itself.
The powdered leaves are very soothing for mouth sores in nursing infants, according to Moore.
Tea made from the stems can be used to treat coughs. The tea made from the bark, berries, or leaves steeped in cold water can be gargled for sore throats and cold sores, or you can drink it to alleviate diarrhea or urinary problems (best to use leaves for the latter).
Caution: Some people are allergic to the bark, roots, and leaves of the basket bush, so use it sparingly the first time.
