October 2, 2011 - Scarlet Stag
Welcome to the Nature Notebook.

Scarlet leaves and cone-shaped clusters of berries blaze in the autumn sun. This is staghorn sumac. It grows on dry sites along roadsides and field edges. It is not poison sumac. That noxious plant thrives in swampy or boggy areas. Staghorn sumac protects its branches from browsing deer with a covering of dense hairs, giving them the appearance of stag antlers in velvet. Even the reddish berries have a coating of hairs. These berries often remain intact until late winter. Birds pass them by in fall and early winter, but as food becomes more difficult to find, sumac berries become more appealing. Staghorn sumac has a soft, pithy center which is useful for making spiles for maple sugaring. A hot wire poked through a length of sumac yields a hollow tube for directing maple sap into a bucket in late winter.

This is PPL's naturalist, Jon Beam, with the Nature Notebook for WVIA.