Educate Yourself About the Smooth Sumac and Its Nectar-drinking Birds
Smooth Sumac
Smooth Sumac (Rhus glabra) is a plant you can use as a windbreaker or informal screen. It grows red, tubular shaped flowering, and its fall and winter fruits are eaten by at least 12 different kinds of birds. The Smooth Sumac also provides great opportunities for nesting among its thickets, especially for insect-eating birds. Suspending a lightweight tubular plastic bird feeder on its branches will increase the amount of birds, visiting your bird feeding garden.
The Smooth Sumac has male and female flowers on separate plants, so therefore you need both plants together to bare fruits. It needs full sun, and will tolerate poor soil, but will definitely do best in rich, moist ones. It will grow up to “between” 10-15ft (3-4.5m), and have a spread of around 8ft (2.4m). A great alternative is the Prairie Sumac (R. lanceolata), and is a small tree or shrub which likes dry to rocky soils.
