Rhus typhina

Medium green leaves turn red, yellow, orange, scarlet, and red velvet in fall.  You can rejuvenate it by cutting to the ground every few years.  It is not poisonous thought it can be weedy spreading by suckers to form colonies. It naturally occurs in the western part of North Carolina.  It is drought tolerant.  Its showy white blooms appear in the spring and summer and are followed by equally showy red berries. It is particularly noted for the reddish-brown hairs that cover the young branchlets in somewhat the same way that velvet covers the horns of a stag (male deer). Easily grown in average, dry to medium moisture, well-drained soils in full sun to part shade. Tolerant of a wide range of soils except for those that are poorly drained. Generally tolerant of urban conditions. This is a suckering shrub that will form thickets in the wild via self-seeding and root suckering. It is native to woodland edges, roadsides, railroad embankments and stream/swamp margins from Quebec to Ontario to Minnesota south to Georgia, Indiana and Iowa.

Wildlife Value: Flowers provide a nectar source to native bees.  Fruits are enjoyed by birds.

Other Plant Problems: May spread agressively through root suckers.