Weed ID Please

[greenthumbomaha]

See post below with photo added.



-Lisa

[greenthumbomaha]

I posted a photo of this weed two years ago and someone ID'ed but can't find now. It's growing tall quickly and spreading all over the yard. Help, what is this 7 leaved thug in the blackberry patch?


- Lisa

[MissS]

Yes we did id it and it was Sumac. It spreads and grows quickly. It has a milky white sap.

[clkeiper]

I do remember that but that post but that sure looks like the elderberry I have popping up right now.

[oldman]

Elderberry has more red and on a thicker stem. It initially looks kind of alien and rubbery. It also doesn't spread much that I remember. It just grows in thickets if you let it establish and reseed. itself.

Sumac grows into a drift in a season or two because the roots spread quickly and new plants grow from the roots. It also adapts to many conditions and is native in all the lower 48 states. (Or if not native, already widely established when anyone got around to checking.). To really get rid of it you need to dig out all the roots, which aren't bigger than the plant stem but are shallow and numerous.

Maybe you have sumac too. :-)

[greenthumbomaha]

Thank you for the memory jolt (: Sumac is nasty (in an itchy way) , and I did remember it was an itchy plant. I need to get on this before they grow taller than my hip, which is going to be soon with all the rain forecast for next week.

- Lisa

I wanted to add that after cutting this down and digging what roots I could , I didn't notice this growing last year. From the original post I remember that cutting it would rejuvenate the plant. It is coming back stronger than ever with a much wider spread, as oldman describes I can see it could continue spreading to a a thicket.

[DonDuck]

A lot of professional chefs use sumac seeds as a spice with a slightly tart favor. At the same time people often refer to sumac as poison sumac. Are they the same plant?

[oldman]

The poison part is the chemical in the leaves that causes the same reaction as poison ivy or poison oak. The spice is kind of like mace in that it's a thread structure between the seed and the flesh of the fruit. The plant is related to cashews and there are a few dozen varieties of sumac, including smooth sumac like Lisa's weed. I'm not sure how much fruit you'd need to harvest to get a useful amount of spice or which species are useful.

I'd recommend buying some of the spice and cooking with it before you try growing it. It's lemonish tart, but not a bright lemon flavor. Muted and flat, but not metallic or astringent.

You aren't going to plant horehound in your yard if you've ever tried to get rid of it or tasted it. ;-). No reason to put in sumac if it's not that useful, it's going to give you a rash, and it will be extra work to get rid of it.

[Soilsniffer]

An FYI: Since you're in Omaha (I'm assuming Nebraska), ZERO chance that it's *poison* sumac. Poison sumac is found only in the northern and eastern US. Closest place to you with the poison variety would be Minnesota.

[Worth1]

This from Texas Parks and wildlife.

"Poison Sumac reacts very much like Poison Ivy, but it looks very different. It is also usually only found in very wet, wooded regions of Texas, typically in the east. It can be a tall shrub or small tree. The leaves are arranged in pairs of 3 to 6 with a single leaf at the terminal end of the stem. The fruits of the Poison Sumac are a whitish green hanging fruit. There are non-poisonous varieties of Sumac, which appear similar, yet their fruits are red and upright. The same procedures should be followed as for Poison Ivy exposure."

[DonDuck]

I used to spend a lot of time riding my ATV in the mountains of Arkansas. I often saw bush or small tree like plants with bright red seed heads standing straight up on the plants. The seed heads in color, shape; and posture looked very much like red grain sorghum or millet seed heads look just before harvest.


I asked a guy who lived locally what the plants are. He said they are sumac. I didn't have enough knowledge about sumac to ask if it was the edible sumac or the poison sumac. I'm pretty sure now the plants I saw produce the sumac spice.


Someone in this thread mentioned elder berry as a potential weed. I'm also very unfamiliar with wild elder berry. All my life, I've heard about elderberry wine and jellies. I know the berries are not edible until they are cooked. I also know the plants can be purchased online. Are wild and commercial elder berry the same plant?

[Nan_PA_6b]

Elderberries are edible uncooked. I like to crush them in iced tea; they make it a pretty color and add an interesting flavor.

[oldman]

Elderberry plants are species, not hybrids. So the wild plants and cultivated plants are the same stock. The range and distribution of species varies so what's in your garden may not be what's growing wild. They will be after a while though. Birds spread the seeds and the plants can pop up almost anywhere.

All parts of the plants have toxins. They're the same ones that make eating raw Lima beans a bad idea. In poison sumac the name comes from the leaves producing the same chemical that causes poison oak and poison ivy to be so named. Sumac has smaller amounts in each leaf, but many more leaves per plant. That aside, check with a local expert before eating any part of any plant growing wild.

[clkeiper]

Originally Posted by DonDuck

A lot of professional chefs use sumac seeds as a spice with a slightly tart favor. At the same time people often refer to sumac as poison sumac. Are they the same plant?

different sumacs. you are referencing staghorn sumac as a cooking ingredient.
https://www.thespruce.com/sumac-tree...shrubs-3269722
and poison Sumac here
https://www.thespruce.com/poison-sumac-pictures-4071931

[greenthumbomaha]

Correct, this is a photo taken in Nebraska in a suburban less than quarter acre backyard. I have a call out to the extension office to verify the range of poison sumac hasn't migrated to my area.

Extension returned call quickly. There are no reports of poison sumac in the state. They suggest fighting the battle with Triclopyr to stop the spread of rhizomes. I will do that (not a chemical person unless there is a serious problem.) Cut stem to 4 inches and immediately brush chemical on open wound.

- Lisa