Most sumac species in North America are edible. The three you’re most likely to encounter and safely eat are staghorn sumac, smooth sumac, and fragrant sumac, all of which produce clusters of fuzzy red berries with a tart, lemony flavor. The one species to avoid is poison sumac, which looks quite different and produces white berries instead of red. If you remember one rule, it’s this: red berries, good; white berries, stay away.
The Three Common Edible Species
Staghorn sumac is the most widely recognized edible variety. It grows as a shrub or small tree with velvety, fuzzy stems (the texture resembles a deer’s antlers in velvet, hence the name) and large cone-shaped clusters of deep red berries that stand upright at the tips of branches. It’s found throughout the eastern United States and into southern Canada.
Smooth sumac is closely related to staghorn and the two even hybridize where their ranges overlap. It grows across all 48 mainland U.S. states and into Mexico, making it the most widespread sumac in North America. The easiest way to tell it from staghorn is the stems: smooth sumac has hairless, waxy branches rather than fuzzy ones. The berries look similar, forming the same upright red clusters.
Fragrant sumac (sometimes called lemon sumac) is a smaller, more shrubby plant with three-lobed leaves that smell citrusy when crushed. Its berries are also red and edible, though the clusters tend to be smaller.
How to Identify Poison Sumac
Poison sumac is a completely different plant in both appearance and habitat. It belongs to the same genus as poison ivy and poison oak and contains the same skin-irritating oil. Despite sharing the word “sumac,” it’s easy to distinguish once you know what to look for.
- Berries: Poison sumac produces small, flattish, off-white berries that droop downward on loose stems. Edible sumacs have tightly packed, upright, cone-shaped clusters of red berries.
- Leaves: Poison sumac has 7 to 13 leaflets with completely smooth edges (no teeth or scalloping). Edible sumacs have toothed, serrated leaf margins.
- Bark: Poison sumac has smooth, pale bark. Staghorn sumac has fuzzy bark, and smooth sumac has a waxy coating.
- Habitat: Poison sumac grows almost exclusively in wet, swampy areas. Edible sumacs prefer dry, sunny spots: roadsides, field edges, rocky hillsides, and disturbed ground.
If you’re standing in a boggy wetland looking at a shrub with smooth-edged leaves and drooping white berries, walk away. If you’re on a dry hillside looking at toothed leaves and upright red berry clusters, you’ve found an edible species.
A Common Lookalike: Tree of Heaven
Tree of heaven is an invasive species that sometimes grows alongside sumac and can confuse foragers at first glance. Both have long, feather-like compound leaves. The key differences: tree of heaven leaves have smooth, untoothed edges (like poison sumac), while edible sumac leaves are toothed. Tree of heaven also has a distinctive bitter smell when you crush a leaf, and its seeds hang in papery, orange-brown clusters rather than forming the dense red cones of sumac. Tree of heaven is not eaten as food.
What Makes Sumac Tart
The sour, lemony flavor of edible sumac comes from a mix of organic acids concentrated in the berry’s fuzzy outer coating: malic acid (the same acid that gives apples their tang), citric acid, and tartaric acid. This is why sumac berries work as a natural substitute for lemon juice in cooking. The berries are also rich in vitamin C and contain high levels of tannins and other antioxidants, which contribute to a mildly astringent, mouth-drying quality alongside the sourness.
How to Make Sumac-ade
The simplest way to use foraged sumac is a cold-water infusion sometimes called sumac-ade, sumac lemonade, or rhus juice. Take a cluster of ripe red berries, break it apart, and steep the berries in cold or room-temperature water for several hours. Cold water is important because hot water extracts too many tannins, making the drink bitter. Strain the liquid through a fine cloth or coffee filter to remove the tiny hairs and seeds. The result is a tart, pink, lemonade-like drink you can sweeten to taste.
As a spice, dried and ground sumac is a staple in Middle Eastern cooking. It works well on grilled meats, in salad dressings, sprinkled over hummus, or macerated in apple cider vinegar to make an infused vinegar.
When and How to Harvest
Sumac berries ripen in late summer to early fall, typically July through September depending on your region. You want clusters that have turned a deep, rich red. Green or pink clusters aren’t ready yet. Give a berry a quick taste test before picking a large batch: ripe clusters should taste distinctly sour. If the flavor is flat or bland, the acids may have washed away.
Rain is the enemy of sumac flavor. The malic and citric acids sit on the surface of the fuzzy berries, so a heavy rain will literally rinse the tartness away. Pick your sumac during a dry spell, ideally after several days without rain. Harvest by cutting or snapping off entire berry clusters at the stem.
Drying Sumac at Home
To turn fresh berries into the familiar purple-red spice powder, start by rinsing the clusters briefly in cold water and patting them dry. Spread the berries in a single layer and dry them using one of three methods: in an oven set to its lowest temperature (100°F to 150°F) with the door slightly ajar for 6 to 12 hours, in a food dehydrator, or by sun-drying on a screen in a well-ventilated area for several days. The berries are done when they feel brittle and crumble easily. Grind them in a spice grinder or mortar and pestle, then sift out the hard inner seeds. Store the powder in an airtight container away from light.
A Note on Allergies
Sumac belongs to the same botanical family as cashews, pistachios, and mangoes. Research published in the journal Antioxidants has documented cases of people with cashew allergies experiencing allergic reactions after eating sumac or pink peppercorn, both members of this family. The cross-reactivity isn’t fully understood yet, and not everyone with a cashew or pistachio allergy will react to sumac. But if you have a known allergy to cashews or pistachios, approach sumac cautiously and try only a very small amount the first time.