Rhus microphylla

Littleleaf sumac is a big, bushy deciduous shrub of west Texas, the Southwest, and adjoining Mexico, built for heat, sun, and drought. The compound leaves are made up of tiny leaflets that give a fine, almost feathery texture, and they turn rose to purple in fall, an unusual and lovely tone among the sumacs. Tough and dryland-hardy, the plant is well worth trying in the South and any hot, well-drained garden.

Small creamy-white flowers open in spring, and the plant is dioecious, so only female plants carry the small terminal and axillary clusters of fuzzy orange-red berries that follow. Those berries feed birds and other wildlife, and the whole shrub gives cover and forage in dry country where little else grows so willingly.

Littleleaf sumac has long served the peoples of the Southwest. The intensely tart, vitamin-C-rich berries were eaten fresh, ground into meal, and, like the other sumacs, crushed and soaked in cool water into a lemonade-like drink, a tradition recorded among the Navajo, Hopi, Comanche, Cahuilla, and Havasupai, who also turned to the astringent plant in traditional remedies. The tannin-rich chemistry that made the plant useful runs through the whole genus.

Give littleleaf sumac a sunny, sharply drained spot with room to fill out, as an informal screen, a wildlife or xeric planting, or a rugged specimen on a hot, dry bank. Drought-tolerant once established and undemanding, the plant pairs naturally with agaves, yuccas, and other dryland companions, and asks only sun and drainage. Set a female plant for the berries. A tough, characterful native worth experimenting with well beyond the desert Southwest.