Garden Centre

Monday, October 1, 2007

More tree hugging

Whether you call it the staghorn, the sumach or the angel tree, this is an autumn stunner. Let’s be perfectly honest though, this tree can be an absolute horror – it suckers like … well, like a sucker, and has been known to throw out feelers that pass under a nine foot concrete drive and emerge on the other side! My advice? Grow it in a pot, with a concrete slab underneath, that’s what I do, and look at the autumn colour it gives me. Apart from that lovely, almost fiery, burst of autumn glory, there are the tall deep red velvet candles that emerge in spring and are technically called drupes, they look gorgeous, believe me.

Horticultural details: Rhus typhina is commonly called Staghorn, Sumach or Angel tree, and is often grown as a tall shrub. It was brought to England in the 1690s from the Americans and while Native American Indians used to (and possibly still do, for all I know) made a lemonade-like drink from its crushed fruit, and tannery workers used the tannin-rich bark and foliage as a tanning agent, today it has only ornamental value, which is interesting as it is part of the cashew family and quite possibly will turn out to have nutritional or medicinal properties we don’t yet know about.

Labels: autumn colour, garden plants, garden trees, invasive plants, staghorn, sumach

The All Seasons Gardener at 9:30 AM

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