Staghorn Sumac in October

     One clear, windy morning in October several years ago, I was walking through an abandoned field of white aster flowers, goldenrod blooms, tall grasses, milkweed pods expelling their silky, white fluff, and red banners (compound leaves) of staghorn sumac trees fluttering vigorously in the wind.  Each compound leaf has several leaflets lined up on both sides of the main leaf vein.  I suppose that was my first real noticing of sumacs because I, obviously, never forgot any bit of that cold, sunny morning.
     Staghorn sumacs are small, native trees that pioneer land that was denuded by fire or agriculture, here in the Mid-Atlantic States, and in much of eastern United States.  They grow mostly in human-made habitats; along country roadsides, on land that was cultivated and then deserted, and in hedgerows of trees, shrubs, vines and other plants growing between fields.   
     Sumacs usually are either ignored or disliked by most people who don't realize the beauties and values of these trees that generally don't get taller than twelve feet.  Those people consider them to be weed trees, nuisances to be disposed of.  But some folks marvel at, and enjoy, the enlightening beauties of this common tree in so-called waste areas, places we created. 
     Staghorn sumac trees have two main beauties by early October- their red foliage and their red, fuzzy berries.  Sumac's red leaves brighten roadsides and abandoned fields, even on gloomy days.  They bring beauty to places that, otherwise, would have little of it.
     And the berries of staghorn sumacs, arranged in pyramid-shaped clusters on top of the twigs, are not only pretty to see, but beneficial to wildlife as well.  Rodents and small birds, including American robins, eastern bluebirds, cedar waxwings, northern mockingbirds and other species, eat those red, furry berries through autumn and winter.  The birds easily see the brightly colored berries, consume many of them, digest their pulp, but pass many sumac seeds in their droppings as they fly from place to place.  Some of those seeds sprout the next spring.  Sumacs, in that way, are spread across the countryside.  Wildlife gets food in winter and the trees' seeds get free passage to new places on the landscape, where they could sprout and grow, if conditions are right for the young plants.
     Staghorn sumac trees are pretty to see in October, and beneficial to wildlife through winter.  They may be small and weedy-looking, but they are a win-win plant.