How long does it take for a sumac to develop drupes? I've had it since October 2015, and it's growing really well, but I really got it for the beautiful fall foliage and the drupes - so far, no drupes. Am I doing something wrong? Also, what does a drupe look like when it's developing? I can't find any pix of that on the web.
There is a photo of what Douglas Justice called "bobs" in his blog related to this posting: October 10, 2014 - October in the Garden The sumac photo is about half-way down. You might have got a male tree, in which case, no fruits.
I should have asked first if it has flowered? I don't know how old it has to be to flower. I'm confused that an Ontario page would say flowering time is May-June, while a Missouri page says June-July. There are good photos of the flowers and of the drupe bobs on this page: Rhus typhina - Staghorn sumac - Photo Gallery of Large Pictures When it flowers, look to see if you see stamens or a pistil in each flower.
Oh - hi there! It has flowered and finished months ago. It also has something on it that looks like it might be the beginning of a drupe, but I'm not sure. Here's a pic:
I would like to see a picture of what the drupes/bobs look like before they get to complete fruition.
There are pretty amazing photos on this page: Micscape Microscopy and Microscope Magazine The female flower panicles (scroll down the page) look pretty much like they will when the fruits develop. That page says that most of the flowers are perfect, with both stamens and pistils, but still says that the trees are either one or the other. I'm not sure what the panicle looks like after the male flowers have finished flowering, but maybe it's what you're showing. The page referenced here says "Once the flowers have finished blooming on the male sumac tree, they shrivel up and drop off. For the rest of the growing season, the tree has only leaves; it does not develop the colourful “fruit” of the female tree discussed below."
Linked from the same page wendy mentions. Off topic, but so interesting, even a wild cherry blossom. A Flower Garden of Macroscopic Delights
Thanks, @chimera. I put a link to the cherry page in Ornamental Cherries. There are a lot of flowers there, not sorted by common name or botanical name. They do have a search function, but since they don't ID that page as Prunus avium, you can only find it on a search if you just enter Prunus.
QUESTION - does the original poster in this thread then need both male and female sumac plants to create the bob fruit (soft fuzzy looking) she's looking for?
Well, the OP would need the female, as she just has the male. Maybe someone can answer what might be your question: how close does another male need to be for a female plant to be fertilized?
Yes you've clarified my question The OP obviously needs the female sumac plant as that is what apparently bears the bobs --- but does the OP need the male sumac nearby (plus some helpful bees?) QUESTION 2 --- so when buying at the plant nursery - unless bobs are evident - how would one know which gender the sumac is It seems quite uncommon these days to require both genders for what we usually hope for on our ornamental plants (holly w berries etc) --- would you agree? Just curious - I'm not a plant scientist.
I also have another question: This plant has produced several "offspring", as it were - growing out of the bottom of the trunk or the root system (I assume). Would all of these be male, too?
It's interesting because the short sumac do well in cold winter and hot dry summer along the compacted gravel of the trans Canada trail (former KVR rail grade) above Naramata Okanagan BC I wonder if they're introduced exotic - or are they native ?
Hello DANIEL - can you please tell us out here if anyone planting for the drupes (bobs) needs to have a matched pair of male-female ---- or how does that work in plant-world? (oh - and some bees too at the ideal few days of pollination season here in PacNW?)
Yes, both Rhus glabra (the native) and Rhus typhina (eastern North American) are dioecious and so require pollen from the male plants to reach the female plants for fruit to fully form. The flowers look similar on both male and female plants, I suppose without a hand lens it would be hard to tell the difference. You would need to have both male and female in a garden--best would be to have seed-grown plants, or (if vegetatively cloned before reaching the nursery) hopefully they are labeled by sex at the nursery.