• Rhus aromatica (Fragrant Sumac) native plant in bloom
  • Rhus aromatica (Fragrant Sumac) native plant in bloom
  • Rhus aromatica (Fragrant Sumac) native plant in bloom
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Rhus aromatica (Fragrant Sumac)

Rhus aromatica (Fragrant Sumac)

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Fragrant sumac varies in height and branching habit, so give the species room to express its form. Dry, sunny ground with sand or stone suits it.

For Rhus aromatica, choose full to partial sun and dry soil. Recorded habitats include open wooded bluffs; Rocky upland woods; Rocky barrens; Limestone glades; Sandy savannas; Sand prairies; Dunes. Reported height: 2-8 ft.

Growth habit: upright or low, spreading shrub; long rhizomes often form colonies. Allow space for this growth between neighboring plants over several seasons, rather than spacing only for the size of a young plant.

Plant specifications & ecological relationships

Key growing facts

Sunlight Full to partial sun
Soil moisture Dry
Height 2-8 ft
Bloom season Mid-spring

Native landscape companions

For full sun and dry soil, consider these native plants alongside Rhus aromatica:

Companion plant Height
Round-headed Bush Clover (Lespedeza capitata) 2-5 ft
Button Blazing Star, Rough Blazing Star (Liatris aspera) 2–5 ft
Prairie Sunflower (Helianthus pauciflorus) 2-4 ft
Hoary Vervain (Verbena stricta) Up to 3½ ft

These landscape suggestions combine overlapping growing needs with documented plant associations. Match soil, seasonal wetness and mature spread to your site. Remnant records are described separately under Plant communities & associates.

Show / hide ▾Growing & planting details
Growth habit Upright or low, spreading shrub; long rhizomes often form colonies
Root form Rhizomes
Soil pH Published cultivation guidance lists acidic soil conditions; no optimal numeric interval is established.
Cultivation hardiness zones Zones 3a–9b (general cultivation guidance)
Drought tolerance Drought tolerance reported in cultivation guidance; establishment needs and duration are not specified.
Deer browsing Deer resistance reported in cultivation guidance; browsing remains possible.

Plant identification & seed reference

Botanical name Rhus aromatica
Other common names fragrant sumac; Aromatic Sumac; Fragrant Sumac; Lemon Sumac; Polecat Bush; Polecat Sumac; Sumac
Plant family Anacardiaceae

Plant characteristics

An excellent sumac for home landscapes as it is smaller and is less aggressive than its cousin's staghorn and smooth sumac.  This shrub's leaves have a beautiful aroma when crushed thus the name Fragrant Sumac.  Like other sumacs, it has magnificent fall red colors!!! It can be a bit aggressive on dryer soils particularity on small landscapes.  Fruit provides a needed food source for overwintering songbirds. Naturally, this plant grows in dry sandy conditions such as lack Michigan dunes, dry Black Oak savannas, and dry prairies.

  • Flower Color Purple
  • Flower Time June
    • Show / hide ▾Plant communities & associates

    Documented Illinois communities

    Successional dry sand prairie — Primms Prairie

    Lost Mound — Jo Daviess County, Illinois; 2005 survey.

    Other native plants recorded in this survey area: Asclepias syriaca, Asclepias verticillata, Brickellia eupatorioides, Eragrostis spectabilis, Juniperus virginiana, Koeleria macrantha, Lespedeza capitata, Monarda punctata, Panicum virgatum, Prunus serotina, Rosa carolina, Sorghastrum nutans.

    Selected species from the ground layer. The survey includes disturbance and succession; these records do not specify immediate neighbors or planting proportions.

    Mature dry sand prairie

    Big River Natural Area — Henderson County, Illinois; 2005 survey.

    Other native plants recorded in this survey area: Bouteloua hirsuta, Eragrostis spectabilis, Euphorbia corollata, Koeleria macrantha, Lespedeza capitata, Monarda punctata, Quercus velutina, Rhus glabra, Schizachyrium scoparium, Solidago nemoralis, Solidago speciosa, Ambrosia psilostachya.

    Selected species from the ground layer. The survey includes disturbance and succession; these records do not specify immediate neighbors or planting proportions.

    Early-successional blowing sand

    Ayers Sand Prairie Nature Preserve — Carroll County, Illinois; 2004 survey.

    Other native plants recorded in this survey area: Asclepias verticillata, Eragrostis spectabilis, Euphorbia corollata, Koeleria macrantha, Lespedeza capitata, Liatris aspera, Panicum virgatum, Solidago nemoralis, Viola pedata, Ambrosia psilostachya, Apocynum sibericum, Aristida tuberculosa.

    Selected species from the ground layer. The survey includes disturbance and succession; these records do not specify immediate neighbors or planting proportions.

    Green River community records

    Dry sand prairie: Lee County, Illinois (2006). Selected catalog plants recorded in this community: Amorpha canescens; Antennaria plantaginifolia; Asclepias verticillata; Coreopsis lanceolata; Euphorbia corollata; Koeleria macrantha.

    The study site includes restoration plantings. Community records do not establish county-native origin or a seed-mix recipe.

    Other regional plant communities

    These plants are named with this species in published vegetation accounts. Each list keeps its community and region; some records describe a shared vegetation type rather than neighboring plants in a measured plot. They are ecological records, not a planting recipe, and may include plants unsuitable for a particular garden.

    Show / hide ▾Native range & C-value

    State nativity describes a broad range. Use the Chicago-region assessment for local context; a state listing does not establish county nativity.

    Wetland indicator — NWPL 2022 Midwest UPL
    C-value — Chicago region, Flora 2017 9
    Chicago-region native — Flora 2017 Yes
    Native range — U.S. states Alabama; Arizona; Arkansas; California; Colorado; Connecticut; Delaware; Florida; Georgia; Idaho; Illinois; Indiana; Iowa; Kansas; Kentucky; Louisiana; Maryland; Massachusetts; Michigan; Minnesota; Mississippi; Missouri; Montana; Nebraska; Nevada; New Hampshire; New Jersey; New Mexico; New York; North Carolina; North Dakota; Ohio; Oklahoma; Oregon; Pennsylvania; South Carolina; South Dakota; Tennessee; Texas; Utah; Vermont; Virginia; West Virginia; Wisconsin; Wyoming
    County nativity Not yet verified; occurrence records do not establish nativity.
    Show / hide ▾Pollinators & wildlife

    Bees visiting flowers — southern Utah

    These bees were collected at this plant’s flowers in Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monument, Utah, during the 2000–2003 survey. Flower collection records do not establish pollen specialization, successful pollination, or occurrence in an Illinois garden.

    • Andrena angustitarsata — 2002.
    • Andrena chlorura — 2002.
    • Andrena cristata — 2002.
    • Andrena lupinorum — 2002.
    • Andrena medionitens — 2002.
    • Andrena milwaukeensis — 2002.
    • Andrena w-scripta — 2002.
    • Anthophora neglecta — 2003.
    • Lasioglossum heterorhinum — 2002.

    Caterpillars & other plant-feeding insects

    This plant has published caterpillar host records for the butterflies and moths listed below. These are larval feeding relationships, separate from adult nectar visits. The records span a North American literature compilation and do not establish that every insect occurs locally or uses only this plant.

    Moths

    • Cameraria guttifinitella — Poison Ivy Leafminer
    • Stigmella intermedia
    Show / hide ▾Frequently asked questions

    What are the ideal growing conditions for Fragrant Sumac?
    Light: Full to partial sun. Soil moisture: Dry.

    Is Fragrant Sumac deer and herbivore resistant?
    Deer resistance reported in cultivation guidance; browsing remains possible. Even plants described as resistant may be browsed. Use physical protection where deer damage is a concern.

    When should I expect Fragrant Sumac to bloom?
    Typical flowering period: Mid-spring. Timing varies with location and weather.

    Show / hide ▾Sources & ecological notes

    Landscape companion selection: Natural Communities compared the growing requirements shown on these species pages with selected source records: Blowing sand — Northwestern Illinois — Mississippi River sand deposits. The shortlist is a planting-design inference. A shared record does not establish adjacency, identical soil requirements, local seed origin, or a tested planting combination. Regional synthesis records retain their documented focal-to-associate scope.

    Illinois communities & local records: Ebinger et al.: Green River communities (2009).

    Native range & ecological ratings: Flora of the Chicago Region (2017), via Universal FQA; USACE Chicago FQA (2017); Kew WCVP / Plants of the World Online; USACE National Wetland Plant List.

    Growing conditions & other references: Illinois Wildflowers, John Hilty; Original publisher supplement; USDA Forest Service: Prunus americana; USDA Forest Service: Rhus aromatica; NC State Extension Plant Toolbox.

    Wildlife records: Carril et al.: Utah bee collections (2018); Shropshire & Tallamy: caterpillar hosts (2025).

    Native range does not identify the origin of the seed or plants offered. Community and wildlife records apply to the locations and conditions described.

    Research notes & credits

    Carril, O.M., Griswold, T., Haefner, J. & Wilson, J.S. (2018). Wild bees of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument: richness, abundance, and spatio-temporal beta-diversity. Original publisher supplement. The 2018 publication is distributed under a Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication; this selection uses the publisher’s original supplement, not the later separately licensed GBIF/IPT distribution. Natural Communities selected exact catalog matches, retained source identifications and grouped flower collection records by bee and year. No pollen-load analysis or species-specific pollination effectiveness is inferred.

    USACE/ERDC fqadata — Chicago Region FQA 2017. Herman, B., Sliwinski, R. & Whitaker, S. (2017), Chicago Region FQA Calculator; distributed by USACE/ERDC in fqadata under CC0. Values may differ from Flora of the Chicago Region (2017). CC0 dedication. Retained for comparison; the displayed C-value follows Flora database 80.

    Range data: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew; 4 June 2026 release, accessed 7 September 2026. © The Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. CC BY 3.0; selected and reformatted. Kew cannot warrant the quality or accuracy of these data. This use has no Kew endorsement.

    Caterpillar host records: Shropshire, K.J. & Tallamy, D.W. (2025), Lepidoptera of North America, Supplement 1. Contains information from this database made available under the Open Database License (ODbL 1.0). Natural Communities selected species-level records and screened source qualifications. The complete selection and transformation instructions for this page are available below under the same license.

    Community records adapted from Ebinger et al. (2009), Table 1, CC BY 4.0; selected facts reorganized by Natural Communities.

    Flora rating attribution: Kenneth Johnson (2018), Flora of the Chicago Region UFQA Database, following Gerould Wilhelm and Laura Rericha (2017), Flora of the Chicago Region: A Floristic and Ecological Synthesis. Individual rating facts are presented with original commentary; the calculator’s software license is not treated as a license for the underlying Flora publication.

    Caterpillar research records

    Plant: Rhus aromatica

    Record scope: Host literature synthesis; no county nativity or local insect occurrence inferred.

    Shropshire & Tallamy (2025) · Original research dataset · Reuse license: ODbL-1.0

    Plant names in the source Source insect record IDs
    Rhus aromatica 202231, 211822

    How these records were selected

    To reproduce this selection, use the “UDELep May 2025” worksheet in the original research dataset.

    1. Match the insect record IDs above to column A (UDLepID). Within each table row, pair every listed insect ID with every listed source plant name.
    2. Use the first two words in column H for the insect’s scientific name, column E for its common name, and column AB for its source category.
    3. Treat the selected pairs as reported caterpillar host records. Keep all other source fields unchanged and outside this selected table. Include no other rows or host pairs.
    4. Group butterflies and skippers together, and the other categories as moths. Retain the source’s exotic-category labels and sort display names by scientific insect name.

    Survey communities: Ebinger et al. (2006), Tables 1–12, Illinois Natural History Survey Bulletin. CC BY 4.0; adapted as dated presence lists, with the source’s non-native records excluded from the displayed native lists.

    Growing guidance: Illinois Extension — Keeping deer out of the yard and garden. Selected facts in original wording. General deer advice is not a species resistance rating.

    Plant Shipping & Care

    We want to ensure that our customers get what they want, a native backyard oasis. To do that, we need to follow a few simple guidelines and give you some information and pointers to make sure you get your plants delivered in a healthy state.

    As a reminder, you will receive an email to confirm your pickup or shipping window just before the plants are ready. See Order Fulfillment below for seasonal fulfillment windows.

     

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    Order Fulfilment - When Your Plants or Other Items Will Be Ready

    We take orders all year long and seed is shipped all year, but we only provide the plants to you in certain fulfillment windows to ensure healthy plants.

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    Retail & Website Orders

    • Seed Typically Ships Out Within One Week Of Order All Year Long
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    • Mixed species kits are batched and shipped as indicated on the product page.
    • If a plant order is placed while outside of the plant fulfillment window your plants will be reserved through your payment, however, the order will not be fulfilled and shipped until the following spring. We don't want to provide you plants when they won't be happy during the cold winter months. 
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    Where We Ship

     

     

          What to Expect When Receiving Your Delivery

          • Your plants will be packaged with the utmost care
          • We will need to cut back certain plants prior to shipping. This seems counter-intuitive, however, the fewer leaves the less water the plants can lose during shipping, resulting in healthier plants for you. This also enables the plants to fit within the protective packaging and shipped safely.

           

             Shipments

            • Larger plant shipments will look similar to the picture below with a tray of your plants and a cardboard box to protect them during shipping.

             

             

            What to Do With Your Plants After  Receiving Your Delivery

            • Unpack your order IMMEDIATELY
            • Inspect for damage and report any issues immediately to Natives@NaturalCommunities.net
            • Water your plants
            • Install your plants as quickly as possible and water the entire garden area thoroughly
            • If you cannot install your plants immediately
              • Some plants may not be in a container, put them into some kind of a container such as a paper cup with loose soil until installation
              • Make sure each plant is receiving the appropriate amount of light.
              • Continue to water daily each morning and possibly again in the afternoon
              • No additional fertilizer is needed
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