Dwarf Sumach or Mountain Sumach Tree
The Dwarf, Black, or Mountain Sumach (Rhus copallina, Linn.), is the soft, velvety species, fully as handsome, if not quite as large, as the preceding one. It grows all over the eastern half of the United States and beyond the Mississippi to the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. Usually a shrub, it rises to 30 feet in height in the mountains of Tennessee and North Carolina.
It is the latest of all the sumachs to bloom. Its long pinnate leaves are lined with soft hair, and the central leaf stem is winged on each side between the pairs of leaflets. These are the most beautiful leaves to be found in the sumach family. They turn in autumn to dark, rich reds.
In the South, the leaves are gathered in summer in considerable quantities, for they are rich in tannin, and when dried and pulverised, are used for tanning leather. A yellow dyestuff is also extracted from them.