Species
+

Rhus glabra L.

Red Sumac, Scarlet Sumac, Scarlet Sumach, Smooth Sumac

Climate known 67 photographs
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Rhus glabra, the smooth sumac, is a North American species of sumac in the family Anacardiaceae.

Text from Wikipedia, “Rhus glabra”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Rhus

Sumac or sumach —not to be confused with poison sumac—is any of the roughly 35 species of flowering plants in the genus Rhus of the cashew and mango tree family, Anacardiaceae. However, it is Rhus coriaria that is most commonly used for culinary purposes. Sumac is prized as a spice—especially in Middle Eastern cuisine—and used as a dye and holistic remedy. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Sumac”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Anacardiaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
British Columbia, Manitoba, Saskatchewan +52
Wild records
1883 in range· 441 open

At a glance

Warmest month
29°C
Jul, mean day; nights 19 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1070mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Jun 110 mm (CHELSA)
Light
12–40DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (March to October in the northern hemisphere). Habitat rain 1070 mm a year, wettest June at 110 mm, driest January at 65 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 12 to 40 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -7.7 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Rhus albida Greene; Rhus angustiarum Lunell; Rhus aprica Greene; Rhus arbuscula Greene; Rhus arguta Greene and 45 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (March to October in the northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (777 mm of 1070 mm) takes 8 months, March to October. Mean temperature moves 24.7 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: September to April.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 1070 mm a year, wettest June at 110 mm, driest January at 65 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1070 mm a year at the habitat, 777 mm of it March to October. Wettest month June at 110 mm, driest January at 65 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 658 mm to 1357 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 12 to 40 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 12 to 40 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 9, the highest 90th-percentile month 44).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor -7.7 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -7.7 °C, the absolute minimum -20.7 °C, about 95 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 36.5 °C. Monthly means: coldest night -4.5 °C in January (across the envelope cells -12.1 °C to 3.1 °C), warmest day 28.8 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -7.7 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 55 to 59% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 4 °C in Jan to 29 °C in Jul; mean night from -5 °C in Jan to 19 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 1070 mm of rain a year, most in Jun. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 1435 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -20.7 °C and the 99th-percentile day 36.5 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-30°-20°-10°10°20°30°40°frost36.5° 99th-percentile day (undated)-20.7° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100125150mm rainDLI 12–40RH 55–59 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 1435 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C4 / -3–136 / -1–1511 / 6–1917 / 12–2422 / 18–2827 / 23–3129 / 26–3328 / 25–3324 / 21–3018 / 14–2411 / 5–185 / -2–13
Night °C-5 / -12–3-3 / -10–51 / -4–96 / 2–1311 / 8–1817 / 13–2219 / 16–2419 / 16–2415 / 12–209 / 6–143 / -2–9-2 / -9–4
Rain mm65 / 22–10867 / 22–11888 / 42–12793 / 60–118107 / 75–139110 / 85–130105 / 60–12796 / 53–11992 / 67–11286 / 57–11984 / 39–12077 / 29–123
DLI14 / 11–1820 / 18–2327 / 25–2934 / 32–3637 / 36–4040 / 39–4240 / 38–4435 / 33–4029 / 26–3321 / 18–2514 / 11–1912 / 9–16
RH %58 / 56–6457 / 55–6256 / 55–5855 / 54–5757 / 54–5958 / 56–6058 / 53–6159 / 53–6158 / 54–6157 / 55–5958 / 56–6159 / 57–64

Each figure is the median across the 1435 grid cells holding the 1795 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1141:1420 (32.925, -108.975). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -20.7 °C, 1st-percentile night -7.7 °C, 99th-percentile day 36.5 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 1435 distinct grid cells holding the 1795 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1141:1420 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 33.00_-108.750, lapse-corrected +166 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 1869 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeBritish Columbia, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Ontario, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, Wyoming, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Connecticut, Indiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode I., Vermont, West Virginia, Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, Texas, Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, District of Columbia, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Northwest· introduced: Germany
Extinct inQuébec· recorded as extinct by WCVP: history, not habitat; no records are tested against these regions
Kew's description“tree” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker33.045, -96.852 · in the densest population, 646 records (34% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1883 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 441 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 6 km away. 11 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 88 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 1883 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Rhus glabraRhus glabraRhus glabraRhus glabraRhus glabraRhus glabraRhus glabraRhus glabra

Photographs: (c) Timon T. K., some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Sergei Maslov, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA); (c) Zach Earl, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Annika Lindqvist, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Steven Lamonde, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2).

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Rhus glabra, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Antimicrobial constituents of Rhus glabra
Geeta Saxena, A.R. McCutcheon, Susan Walker Farmer, G.H.N. Towers (1994) · Journal of Ethnopharmacology
Antimicrobial activity of native and naturalized plants of Minnesota and Wisconsin
Joy R. Borchardt, Donald L. Wyse, Craig C. Sheaffer, Kendra L. Kauppi (2008) · Journal of Medicinal Plants Research
ULTRASTRUCTURE OF THE SECRETORY DUCTS OF RHUS GLABRA L.
A. Fahn, Ray F. Evert (1974) · American Journal of Botany
C 3 woody plant expansion in a C 4 grassland: are grasses and shrubs functionally distinct?
James K. McCarron, Alan K. Knapp (2001) · American Journal of Botany
Ultrastructure of the Secretory Ducts of Rhus Glabra L.
A. Fahn, Ray F. Evert (1974) · American Journal of Botany
Drivers of nocturnal water flux in a tallgrass prairie
Kimberly O’Keefe, Jesse B. Nippert (2018) · Functional Ecology
An Ancient Residue Metabolomics-Based Method to Distinguish Use of Closely Related Plant Species in Ancient Pipes
Korey J. Brownstein, Shannon Tushingham, William J. Damitio, Tung T. Nguyen (2020) · Frontiers in Molecular Biosciences
Dietary foundations for pollinators: nutritional profiling of plants for bee health
Khara W. Stephen, Katherine D. Chau, Sandra M. Rehan (2024) · Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Rhus 4 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 90 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.