Sumac
genus of plants
Sumac or sumach ( S(H)OO-mak, UK also )—not to be confused with poison sumac—is any of the roughly 35 species of flowering plants in the genus Rhus (and related genera) 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. The plants grow in subtropical and temperate regions, on nearly every continent except Antarctica and South America.
It holds cultural significance as a symbolic item on the Haft-sin table during Nowruz, the Persian New Year.
Description
Sumacs are dioecious shrubs and small trees that can reach a height of one to ten metres (3–33 ft). The leaves of its type species are pinnately compound, though some species have trifoliate or simple leaves. The flowers are in dense panicles or spikes 5–30 cm (2–12 in) long, each flower very small, greenish, creamy white or red, with five petals. The fruits are reddish, thin-fleshed drupes covered in varying levels of hairs at maturity and form dense clusters at branch tips, sometimes called sumac bobs.
Sumacs propagate both by seed (spread by birds and other animals through their droppings), and by new shoots from rhizomes, forming large clonal colonies.
The public source identifies “Sumac” as genus of plants. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Sumac, genus and plants.
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Stable identifiers, scientific names and standards terminology offer the best bridge between this overview and specialist evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 2, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q157649. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Sumac” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.