Unfortunately due to naming, many people think only of “poison” sumac (Toxicodendron vernix) instead of the edible species in the Rhus genus when they think of wild sumac. Thankfully, it couldn’t be easier to tell the difference. Poison sumac with have smooth-edged leaflets and both smooth and staghorn sumac will have serrated edges. Dwarf sumac does also have smooth edges, but it also has the presence of that “leafy” inner part along the stem between leaflets. If we’re talking about the berries, it’s even easier! Edible sumac berries are red and point upwards. Poison sumac berries are white and droop downwards. Last, the environments are completely different. I find the edible Sumac species all over the place. Especially roadside and field and forest edges. Poison sumac is typically only found in very wet clay swamps and bogs. I have never seen it in the wild before! Tree of Heaven (Ailanthus altissima) is another tree with alternating compound leaves, however, it lacks any latex when broken and smells terrible! It's also invasive so destroy and uproot it wherever possible! Latex is a white milky substance that forms from breaks and cuts in the plant. Be aware that most “latex allergies” are specific to rubber-tree-derived latex. So you may not be allergic to the kind from Rhus, but caution is always advised! Have you ever foraged sumac before? Shoutout to my friend Casey for showing me the edible shoots for the first time!
I didn't know you can eat the new growth! I've only made lemonade with the fruit. How early in the year does it put off new branches? What does it taste like?
@@lyndabird9401 I think a lot of plants have natural latex. It's the milky white stuff. Osage orange, butterfly Weed has it too. If you're referring to poison sumac, everyone is allergic due to the Urushiol, like poison Ivy, it has nothing to do with latex, as I understand it. Does that answer your question?
Tree of heaven is so common here in Turkish cities it can even pop up in places where dust and dirt accumulates unlike any other tree and is very invasive. Unlike it's nice English name we call it fart tree as it spreads and smells like it.
You can sun dry the fruits to peel the red fuzz off. It's very reminiscent of lemon. We make a drink out of it with honey or maple sugar, it's like lemonade. Or season food with it. If you just dump all the fruits in a bucket of water and mash em up, any fabric you put in will come out a nice pale red colour. It's a traditional dye.
Sumac berries are my favorite spice! Put ‘em in a grinder, and put on just about everything, and I might even consider rolling in it naked… and life is good! That’s how much I love sumac!
Alot of kids made sumac lemonaide from the berries for their wild edibles project in my outdoor adventures class in high school, it's really delicious. (I made dandelion root "coffee") Super cool to relearn what I've forgotten, thank you for sharing this information. Video format is the best way for me to feel more confident about wild edibles vs just reading alone.
I have foraged smooth sumac "fruits". I didn't know the shoots were edible. And thank you so much for this because now we can distinguish between the sumacs and tree of heaven and get rid of the tree of heaven that is coming up everywhere.
Warch our for poison sumac of course (unless youre like me and arent allergic to it, 13% of the poulation arent so its jot terrible odds, its delucious but yeah not worth the risk unless you know you arent sensative to urusiol)
Make sure to check the right way to eliminate it or allow the local forestry (or facsimile thereof) to do so. Cutting it is the quickest way to trigger it to grow more suckers, as so many who have battled it have discovered! It is a PROBLEM. Especially now, with spotted lanternfly.
STAG HORN sumac, the fuzzy one topped with red fuzzy berry clumps that look like red-dipped ice cream cones, has a inner bark that tastes like carrots. The fuzzy red berry clumps can be steeped in cool water to make a “lemonade” type drink. Just add your favorite sweetener!❤🍹
Brother you are crazy smart and will most definitely survive the apocalypse. Thank you for the information you are bringing us and I'm loving the channel.
What you are calling dwarf sumac if it is the same as what can be found here in Maine is called "stag horn " sumac , round here anyway . It is also a very light wood that is actually a great walking stick. As another pointed out young red raeceen atop makes a refreshing beverage that is citrusy in flavor
My brain can never remember this name. Every time i'm telling someone about it, "Sambuca" comes out instead. Where i'm from we have Staghorn Sumac. When a colony is allowed to grow in a garden, these plants are stunning ! Especially after several shots of real Sambuca 😎
I had a beautiful blooming sumac tree until last year when a storm uprooted it. Thankfully they are invasive and started a few new ones in its place. Have you tried sumac tea
One of my middle school teachers got mad at me when I ate berries off a sumac tree even though I knew the difference between stuff from my grandma teaching me. There was also a time my cousin's neighbor gave me (and said cousin) daylily petals she'd foraged and tested herself but my cousin threw up after so it was assumed they were poisonous by my family. I had more petals than him btw, I was like... 8 at the time (we live in Maine for anyone curious)
We had a small tree come up in our yard that I had managed to pin down to a type of sumac, but was unable to find out exactly which kind because google was just detecting the word “sumac” and throwing tons of articles about poison sumac at me. Now I believe it’s dwarf sumac. Thanks for the video, I had nearly given up trying to positively identify it, and I was gonna cut it down!
It's a serious problem almost everywhere. Make sure to kill it properly (poison, unfortunately, though you can pull smaller trees--just don't leave ANY roots!) or it just triggers more growth.
I’ve been wondering the difference between the two, thank you! I’ve also been wondering how to identify, Chinese pistache, and Sichuan pepper. If someone can inform me? Thank you!
i always thought the tree of heaven smelled like peanut butter as well as my friends and teachers but i could be getting confused with another type of leaf.
Wait, is Tree of Heaven the invasive species brought over from Asia by colonizers? They're architecturally gorgeous, but their flowers reek for the entire month of June. They'll grow _anywhere._
I'm not sure if you do, the range map of Toxicodendron vernix (Poison sumac) doesn't show occurrence in Missouri. It could be edible sumac. Not saying you are wrong, just that it's worth exploring more! en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toxicodendron_vernix
@@FeralForaging I saw the comment and was like im pretty sure there is. According to the conservation dept website and im basically paraphrasing. True poison sumac does not exist in missouri naturally but the ignorant locals whom all call it poison sumac and taught me to call it that, is actually winged sumac.
@@FeralForaging it's very peppery if I remember correctly (it has been a bit, it doesn't grow tons here and I have my hands full killing genuinely toxic plants like poison hemlock) obviously I take out any urushiol bearing plants too but yeah, hemlock is the big problem mere (it also tastes peppery kinda like arugula mixed with carrot greens, I've been handling the hemlock population for so long I have a rather substantial resistance to it and it's a good way of ensuring the toxic compounds are adequately denatured before disposal) I also use poison ivy as a house plant which had literally saved my ass before, I had a neighbor try to drug and... well I don't need to explain that part I'm sure. But by the time he got his pants down I was whipping him with Greg (one of my ivys) so it made identification and apprehension of the perp really easy it's not easy to explain how you got poison ivy on your d*ck Also interestingly there is a woman (Zura Karuhimbi) who used her resistance to save over 100 people durring the rowandan genocide, she had a reputation as a witch and she was like yeah ill curse you if you try to fuck with my refugees. She would lash people with urushiol bearing plants and the spreading reaction was enough to make people think she had actually cursed them
@@FeralForaging almost a Szechuan sort of flavour but sweeter and less intense, you can probably get a good idea by tasting normal sumac and szechuan peppercorns I might suggest a tea the texture is not super reproducable.... maybe seaweed salad? Idk it's like not terrible but I'd still take an apple (especially fuji or that one strain that tastes like chocolate) over it but like in a survival situation it's full if vitamins and minerals (not super calories dense but still better to keep your nutrient levels up even if you are starving)
Where I used to live we had a terrible Tree of Heaven problem. It smelled so bad and the seeds would spread everywhere if you didn’t get to them fast enough.
Unfortunately due to naming, many people think only of “poison” sumac (Toxicodendron vernix) instead of the edible species in the Rhus genus when they think of wild sumac.
Thankfully, it couldn’t be easier to tell the difference. Poison sumac with have smooth-edged leaflets and both smooth and staghorn sumac will have serrated edges. Dwarf sumac does also have smooth edges, but it also has the presence of that “leafy” inner part along the stem between leaflets.
If we’re talking about the berries, it’s even easier! Edible sumac berries are red and point upwards. Poison sumac berries are white and droop downwards.
Last, the environments are completely different. I find the edible Sumac species all over the place. Especially roadside and field and forest edges. Poison sumac is typically only found in very wet clay swamps and bogs. I have never seen it in the wild before!
Tree of Heaven (Ailanthus altissima) is another tree with alternating compound leaves, however, it lacks any latex when broken and smells terrible! It's also invasive so destroy and uproot it wherever possible!
Latex is a white milky substance that forms from breaks and cuts in the plant. Be aware that most “latex allergies” are specific to rubber-tree-derived latex. So you may not be allergic to the kind from Rhus, but caution is always advised!
Have you ever foraged sumac before? Shoutout to my friend Casey for showing me the edible shoots for the first time!
I didn't know you can eat the new growth! I've only made lemonade with the fruit. How early in the year does it put off new branches? What does it taste like?
Is there a connection being allergic to sumac and allergic to latex? Seems you’ve answered above. Thank you!
@@lyndabird9401 I think a lot of plants have natural latex. It's the milky white stuff. Osage orange, butterfly Weed has it too. If you're referring to poison sumac, everyone is allergic due to the Urushiol, like poison Ivy, it has nothing to do with latex, as I understand it. Does that answer your question?
I've made a beverage (mixed with lemonade) ftom the berries.
Tree of heaven is so common here in Turkish cities it can even pop up in places where dust and dirt accumulates unlike any other tree and is very invasive. Unlike it's nice English name we call it fart tree as it spreads and smells like it.
You can sun dry the fruits to peel the red fuzz off. It's very reminiscent of lemon. We make a drink out of it with honey or maple sugar, it's like lemonade. Or season food with it. If you just dump all the fruits in a bucket of water and mash em up, any fabric you put in will come out a nice pale red colour. It's a traditional dye.
So cool!
People also use it in a seasoning its good stuff
@@fancyincubus Yeah that's in the comment. It's especially good in dry rubs for game meat.
I was always told as a kid when we would make it, that it was the 'real' pink lemonade. Its absolutely delightful.
@@FeralForaging I'm gonna tell you all about SuMac.
SuMac is everybody suing mcdonalds because they got addicted to BigMacs. 😉
Sumac berries are my favorite spice! Put ‘em in a grinder, and put on just about everything, and I might even consider rolling in it naked… and life is good! That’s how much I love sumac!
It's awesome!
What does it taste like as a spice?
Alot of kids made sumac lemonaide from the berries for their wild edibles project in my outdoor adventures class in high school, it's really delicious. (I made dandelion root "coffee") Super cool to relearn what I've forgotten, thank you for sharing this information. Video format is the best way for me to feel more confident about wild edibles vs just reading alone.
It is delicious! Glad the video was helpful. :D
It also makes a great fire starter, green or dry. Works better than lighter fuel. Burns fast and hot!
Good to know thanks
I have foraged smooth sumac "fruits". I didn't know the shoots were edible. And thank you so much for this because now we can distinguish between the sumacs and tree of heaven and get rid of the tree of heaven that is coming up everywhere.
Awesome!
Warch our for poison sumac of course (unless youre like me and arent allergic to it, 13% of the poulation arent so its jot terrible odds, its delucious but yeah not worth the risk unless you know you arent sensative to urusiol)
Make sure to check the right way to eliminate it or allow the local forestry (or facsimile thereof) to do so. Cutting it is the quickest way to trigger it to grow more suckers, as so many who have battled it have discovered! It is a PROBLEM. Especially now, with spotted lanternfly.
STAG HORN sumac, the fuzzy one topped with red fuzzy berry clumps that look like red-dipped ice cream cones, has a inner bark that tastes like carrots. The fuzzy red berry clumps can be steeped in cool water to make a “lemonade” type drink. Just add your favorite sweetener!❤🍹
Brother you are crazy smart and will most definitely survive the apocalypse. Thank you for the information you are bringing us and I'm loving the channel.
Really appreciate these videos. Each one is a gem :))
Glad to hear that!
What you are calling dwarf sumac if it is the same as what can be found here in Maine is called "stag horn " sumac , round here anyway . It is also a very light wood that is actually a great walking stick. As another pointed out young red raeceen atop makes a refreshing beverage that is citrusy in flavor
Two different species! Dwarf doesn't make fuzzy berries like Staghorn does.
Learned something today, thank you ! I've used dry Sumac as seasoning but not fresh..cool 😎
Glad to hear it!
I use dried Sumac in my Fattoush Salads! Never knew what it looked like living! Nice info!
Awesome! It's such a wonderful spice
Red sumac drink is WHY we dye lemonade pink
Please make a video on how to tell the difference between poisonous sumac and staghorn sumac!
I will put it on my list!
Makes the best "pink lemonade" type of drink, especially over ice!
Agreed! We call it sumac-ade!
@Feral Foraging make it concentrated in a syrup and try it with soda water. Trust me!
Sounds delicious!
We use sumac as a herb in many dishes in my country Turkey and i love it!
My local sumac is lemonadeberry.
Staghorn sumac is a favorite of mine!
This is a great video! Thank you for the information.
We just eat it with chopped onions, as simple as that 👌🏽 where else does it grow?
All over the world
I didn't know you can eat the new growth! How early in the year does it put off new branches?
It's generally month of April in North AL
My brain can never remember this name. Every time i'm telling someone about it, "Sambuca" comes out instead. Where i'm from we have Staghorn Sumac. When a colony is allowed to grow in a garden, these plants are stunning ! Especially after several shots of real Sambuca 😎
Sumac in the middle eastern food is so good
I had a beautiful blooming sumac tree until last year when a storm uprooted it. Thankfully they are invasive and started a few new ones in its place. Have you tried sumac tea
Yes, delicious! Many sumac while they can grow aggressively are native to North America!
One of my middle school teachers got mad at me when I ate berries off a sumac tree even though I knew the difference between stuff from my grandma teaching me. There was also a time my cousin's neighbor gave me (and said cousin) daylily petals she'd foraged and tested herself but my cousin threw up after so it was assumed they were poisonous by my family. I had more petals than him btw, I was like... 8 at the time (we live in Maine for anyone curious)
We have a lot of staghorn sumac here in Oklahoma, and can you eat the new growth on those as well? Or just use the dark red clusters for drinks only
I knew! But I read a lot of wild foraging books.
Awesome!
We had a small tree come up in our yard that I had managed to pin down to a type of sumac, but was unable to find out exactly which kind because google was just detecting the word “sumac” and throwing tons of articles about poison sumac at me. Now I believe it’s dwarf sumac. Thanks for the video, I had nearly given up trying to positively identify it, and I was gonna cut it down!
Would you tell us where you are foraging here please? I'm in Missouri and I've not seen sumac here in the Northern part of the state.
North AL
Is this plant related to the spice sumac?
"Tree of heaven" is incredibly invasive where I live. We call it stink weed. it can grow a meter or more every year.
Yep, we try to destroy it every chance we get
It's a serious problem almost everywhere. Make sure to kill it properly (poison, unfortunately, though you can pull smaller trees--just don't leave ANY roots!) or it just triggers more growth.
How do you prepare it? Raw. Cooked? I have that stuff growing all over. Mine gets real tall and has serrated leaves. Is that the one?
Lol my mom would call these Pennsylvania pamtrees LOL growing up. 🤣
Now I'm gonna start calling them west Georgia palms 🌴 😅 everyone already thinks I'm weird anyway
I’ve been wondering the difference between the two, thank you!
I’ve also been wondering how to identify, Chinese pistache, and Sichuan pepper. If someone can inform me? Thank you!
I think it looks a lot like elderberry too and elderberry shoots are toxic.
True. That's an easy opposite vs alternate difference right there!
Good thing I didn't know sumac is edible as a boy. My dad woulda been kinda mad if I ate his trees. Not to mention a little confused😂
My goats love tree of heaven. They grow everywhere
i always thought the tree of heaven smelled like peanut butter as well as my friends and teachers but i could be getting confused with another type of leaf.
I believe the arabs dry the fruit or flowers to turn into a spice
Is this the same Middle Eastern spice plant?
Similar species , but different
Why did Mac get Sued ⁉️✨🙌🏽🥳😊
Lots of sumac in my pasture. Quite a nuisance since it grows back in a short time.
Idk who named tree of heaven but it should be named tree from hell.
Amen!
There are worse trees lol
I believe the sort that's most abundant near me is staghorn sumac, though I'm not 100% sure that's the type it is.
Staghorn is velvety, fuzzy stemmed.
Tree of heaven smells like hell...
Got it
Wait, is Tree of Heaven the invasive species brought over from Asia by colonizers?
They're architecturally gorgeous, but their flowers reek for the entire month of June.
They'll grow _anywhere._
On the East Coast, we have poisonous sumac. Maybe you should include that
Discussed in the pinned comment!
I got the latex from the sumac in my eye and couldn't see for 3 weeks 😅
What is poison sumac?
WoW I thought that Sumac was a type of
Jasmine 🤔 Hmm 🧐 l guess not 😊
We have alot of poison sumac in missouri edit* not poison its winged sumac
I'm not sure if you do, the range map of Toxicodendron vernix (Poison sumac) doesn't show occurrence in Missouri. It could be edible sumac. Not saying you are wrong, just that it's worth exploring more! en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toxicodendron_vernix
@@FeralForaging I saw the comment and was like im pretty sure there is. According to the conservation dept website and im basically paraphrasing. True poison sumac does not exist in missouri naturally but the ignorant locals whom all call it poison sumac and taught me to call it that, is actually winged sumac.
Good to know. Thanks!
Latex? I bet you could process it into rubber?
In theory, yes
Why i recently saw the youtube comments section are full of comment but the youtube show thats has 0 comments??
It may take their servers a second to update
What state do you live in?
AL
Tree of heaven is invasive.
Latex...yum....wait, what? that sounds wrong..
Tree of heaven smells like rotten or stale peanut butter
Yes!
If it's called tree of heaven , why does it stink ????
Yeah if you ask me I'd call it tree of H E double hockey sticks
poisonous?
Not this one
Not a veggie. That’s a tree, not a vine. So that makes it a???
Why is it called “tree of heaven” I hated that tree first time I saw it 😑
I eat poison sumac its delicious (dont do this unless you're part of the 13% who isn't allergic to urusiol)
Whoa. Had no idea poison sumac was good too! I am unfortunately not able to partake!
@@FeralForaging it's very peppery if I remember correctly (it has been a bit, it doesn't grow tons here and I have my hands full killing genuinely toxic plants like poison hemlock) obviously I take out any urushiol bearing plants too but yeah, hemlock is the big problem mere (it also tastes peppery kinda like arugula mixed with carrot greens, I've been handling the hemlock population for so long I have a rather substantial resistance to it and it's a good way of ensuring the toxic compounds are adequately denatured before disposal)
I also use poison ivy as a house plant which had literally saved my ass before, I had a neighbor try to drug and... well I don't need to explain that part I'm sure. But by the time he got his pants down I was whipping him with Greg (one of my ivys) so it made identification and apprehension of the perp really easy it's not easy to explain how you got poison ivy on your d*ck
Also interestingly there is a woman (Zura Karuhimbi) who used her resistance to save over 100 people durring the rowandan genocide, she had a reputation as a witch and she was like yeah ill curse you if you try to fuck with my refugees. She would lash people with urushiol bearing plants and the spreading reaction was enough to make people think she had actually cursed them
@@FeralForaging almost a Szechuan sort of flavour but sweeter and less intense, you can probably get a good idea by tasting normal sumac and szechuan peppercorns I might suggest a tea the texture is not super reproducable.... maybe seaweed salad? Idk it's like not terrible but I'd still take an apple (especially fuji or that one strain that tastes like chocolate) over it but like in a survival situation it's full if vitamins and minerals (not super calories dense but still better to keep your nutrient levels up even if you are starving)
They need to stop naming plants the same name. Very confusing.
They used to be in the same group.
Do you ever post about anything that isnt sumac? Feels like all you know about is sumac lol.
Check our video library. 😅 lots of elderberry vids coming up too!
Where I used to live we had a terrible Tree of Heaven problem. It smelled so bad and the seeds would spread everywhere if you didn’t get to them fast enough.
i knew all of that already im a genius