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Toxicodendron vernix
Also called Poison Ash, Swamp Sumac, Poison Shumake, Thunderwood, White Shoe Make
Poison sumac is a woody shrub or small tree, up to about 9 m tall, native to swamps and bogs in eastern North America. It is best left alone in the wild; it is not a garden plant and is rarely cultivated.
Toxicodendron vernix, commonly known as poison sumac, or swamp-sumach, is a woody shrub or small tree growing to 9 metres (30 feet) tall. It was previously known as Rhus vernix. This plant is also known as thunderwood, particularly where it occurs in the southern United States.
Like its toxic relatives poison ivy and poison oak, all parts of the plant contain a resin called urushiol, which causes skin and mucous membrane irritation to humans. When the plant is burned, inhalation of the smoke may cause the rash to appear on the lining of the lungs, causing extreme pain and possibly fatal respiratory difficulty.
In terms of its potential to cause urushiol-induced contact dermatitis, poison sumac is more toxic than its relatives poison ivy and poison oak.
The differences in toxicity in poison ivy, poison oak, and poison sumac are due to differences in the side chains of the chemicals in these plants. In general, poison ivy has a C15 side chain, poison oak has a C17 side chain and poison sumac has a C13 side chain.
Poison sumac grows exclusively in wet and clay soils, usually in swamps and peat bogs, in the eastern United States and extreme southeast Canada.
Pacific poison oak · Asian Lacquer Tree · Atlantic poison oak · Poison ivy · Western poison ivy · Chinese Lacquer · Poison oak
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Toxicodendron vernix by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
