Hey all, I was told that the sumac that grows in the okanagan is poisonous. Is there any truth to this? is it safe to harvest and eat the red sumac fruit/flowers? Thanks
This article says that if the berries are red, they are edible, though some people are sensitive to plants in the Anacardaceae family to which these belong. SUMAC! | Edible Madison. The most commonly planted seems to be Rhus typhina. Wikipedia says the one used in middle-eastern cooking is Rhus coriaria.
When it's written R. glabra like that, the "R" means the genus [I said "species", but meant genus, see Ron's note below*] name that was already used, so in this case, you can look up "Rhus glabra" and see what various sites are saying. Make sure the fruits you're asking about are red. * I forgot to recite "family, genus, species", still a required recitation after all these years.
Actually in this instance it means the genus name was spelled out previously within the same discussion.
Growing wild, or stuff you see planted? Even so, here is a run of maybe 200 meters of Rhus typhina along the path by Lost Lagoon, across the path from the water, none on the water side. I wonder if the last photo was the original, and if it was deliberately planted. Are the plants you're seeing fuzzy like these, or not fuzzy? Not that it is supposed to make a difference in terms of edibility.
I saw what I think is Rhus glabra in the Sanctuary at the PNE this week. It has no hairs, slightly purple stems, and white fruits. The PNE website talks of "riparian plantings" in the Sanctuary area, so I assume this is not growing naturally here.
No, it looks like the fruits were dabbed on the tips with raspberry jam. Maybe the white bits are sepals, and it will be more clear that the berries really are red when they expand.
