Plant · P-1030

Littleleaf Sumac

Rhus microphylla

Littleleaf Sumac is a much-branched deciduous shrub of dry desert foothills and limestone hillsides in the southwestern United States and northern Mexico, growing four to fifteen feet tall with tiny leathery pinnate leaflets. Clusters of small white flowers open on bare branches ahead of the leaves in spring, followed by tart orange-red drupes about a quarter inch across that feed songbirds, gamebirds and small mammals into winter. It tolerates rocky, sandy or clay soil over limestone, drought, heat and alkaline ground, and it often forms colonies by suckering from the base.