Winged Sumac vs Poison Sumac

Winged Sumac vs Poison Sumac: Side by Side

Here is what to look for, feature by feature. We have added staghorn and smooth sumac as a third column, because they are the other red-berried sumacs people most often meet and they are just as easy to separate from poison sumac.^{[1][2][3][12]}

Three features look like they should help but do not settle it on their own. Upright or hanging clusters: staghorn and smooth sumac hold their clusters upright, but winged sumac's ripe clusters often nod or hang, so a drooping cluster does not mean poison sumac. Check the color and where the cluster grows instead. Leaflet edges: winged sumac and poison sumac both have smooth-edged leaflets, so smooth edges do not rule poison sumac in or out. Toothed edges do point you to staghorn or smooth sumac. A red leaf stem: poison sumac's leaf stems are often red, but winged sumac's can be pinkish red too, as you can see in the photo below. Go by the wings, the berries and the ground instead.

Where Poison Sumac Grows (and Where Winged Sumac Grows)

Habitat is the check you can make from the truck window. Poison sumac is a wetland plant. New York's Department of Environmental Conservation says it grows only in certain wetlands, specifically fens, calcareous marshes and open wooded swamps, and never in dry upland areas.^[6] Across its range it turns up in swamps, bogs, seepage slopes and frequently flooded woods, mostly on the Atlantic and Gulf coastal plains and around the Great Lakes.^[7]

Winged sumac wants the opposite. It grows on dry hillsides, prairies, open woods, thickets, glades and rocky slopes, and it is one of the first shrubs to move into old fields, roadsides and fence rows.^[5][8] It handles poor soil well but does poorly on wet sites.^[2] That is why you see it lighting up road cuts in October.

A note for our neighbors: the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center's state list for poison sumac does not include Arkansas, and the Missouri Department of Conservation says true poison sumac does not occur in Missouri.^[7][3] It does grow in nearby states such as Tennessee, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas, so if you hunt, fish or travel east, the three checks still matter.

Why Poison Sumac Is Not Really a Sumac

Both plants belong to the cashew family, Anacardiaceae, which is why they share a family resemblance in their compound leaves.^[7] But poison sumac sits in a different genus, Toxicodendron, alongside poison ivy and poison oak. All of them carry urushiol, the plant oil that causes the itchy, blistering rash.^[1]

Botanists once lumped poison sumac in with the true sumacs as Rhus vernix, and the common name stuck after the science moved on.^[9] The true sumacs, Rhus, include winged, staghorn, smooth and fragrant sumac, all with red berries. If you want a tour of the whole group, see our guide to types of sumac.

University of Florida extension, in its guide to poison ivy, poison oak, poison sumac and poisonwood, calls winged sumac a "nonallergenic relative" of poison sumac and points to the same tells we use: more leaflets, red berry clusters and a winged leaf stem.^[1]

What to Do If You Touch Poison Sumac

Winged Sumac and Poison Sumac: Common Questions

More questions about the plant itself are answered on our main FAQ page.

Winged Sumac: The Friendly Sumac

Once you know the three checks, winged sumac stops being something to fear and starts being one of the most useful native shrubs you can grow. The red berries make a bright, sour drink. The flowers feed bees in summer, and the berry clusters feed songbirds and game birds deep into winter (see wildlife benefits and game habitat). Its suckering roots hold banks and slopes, which is why it shows up on our list of erosion control shrubs.

Best of all, it grows on exactly the kind of dry, tired ground where poison sumac never could. If you want to try it, our planting guide covers everything from scarifying and cold stratifying the seed to spacing.