Flaming flameleaf sumac
Click for greater clarity and size.
It’s time for another picture of that stalwart of fall color in Austin, prairie flameleaf sumac, Rhus lanceolata. In recent autumns I’ve delighted in visiting and photographing several of these trees on an undeveloped property behind Seton Northwest Hospital, and from today’s picture you can see why my November 19th stay there—on the land, not in the hospital—was satisfying. The warm sunlight of late afternoon intensified the yellows and oranges of the sumac’s many leaflets, especially as they contrasted with the clear blue sky beyond them. The dark areas are drying panicles of the tree’s tiny fruits. (A panicle is bio-speak for a kind of cluster, and I can’t resist pointing out that the uppermost part of one of these clusters is the pinnacle of the panicle. Just think what Danny Kaye could have made of that if only he or his writers had been botanists.)
© 2013 Steven Schwartzman
This is so beautiful. The way it glows reminds me of Annie Dillard’s writing about “the tree with the lights in it”. It also looks as much like a painting as a photograph. Just lovely.
As for “pinnacle, panicle” – do you remember the bit of doggerel about “hogamous, higamous”? It has to have been years since I thought about it, but the rhythm of your words brought it back.
shoreacres
December 10, 2013 at 6:36 AM
These are my trees with lights in them, only a couple of miles from home, the closest flameleaf sumacs I’ve been able to rely on seeing turn colors late each year for the past several. In terms of word origins, photography is writing with light, but the jump from writing to painting isn’t a large one.
Pinnacle, panicle, doggerel… I’d heard the “hogamous, higamous” quatrain attributed to William James, but the good article you linked to makes clear that we’ll probably never know who wrote the ditty. The article also illustrates the way subsequent hearers both modify and reattribute a quotation. The Internet has made the dual processes of misquotation and misattribution go much faster than ever before, alas, although a well-researched Internet article like the linked one can go a long way toward dispelling the misinformation—if only enough people read such articles and take them to heart.
Steve Schwartzman
December 10, 2013 at 7:05 AM
Okay, here we go:
The flameleaf
‘s no blameleaf;
this sumac
‘s a truemac,
so praise it,
don’t raze it.
Steve Schwartzman
December 10, 2013 at 7:12 AM
Clever words and an even more clever structure, especially placing the ‘s as you did. I like the rhyming couplets, too.
Extra layers of meaning for those last two lines tonight. I’ve been watching events in Ukraine for two hours as the barricades have been torn down and protesters dragged away. While the protesters praise liberty and freedom, their camp is being razed. Terrible events.
Here’s the live feed I’ve been watching. I suppose I still have the child-of-the-50’s amazement that such a thing is possible.
shoreacres
December 10, 2013 at 8:40 PM
First the lines “The flameleaf’s / no blameleaf” popped into my head, but the ‘s prevented the first line from making an exact rhyme with the second, so I moved the ‘s to the beginning of the second line, intending it to retain the s sound it had rather than take on the z sound the s has in the word is.
Weightier matters, the protests in Ukraine. My father’s family fled from Communism there in the 1920s. Here we are close to a century later and I’m afraid not a lot has changed. I wish the protesters well.
Steve Schwartzman
December 10, 2013 at 9:28 PM
That is a classic clip. I especially liked the magnetization of his armor with the lightning strike. 🙂
Jim in IA
December 10, 2013 at 10:02 AM
The banter was already in my head, but even when I found and watched the clip a few days ago I didn’t remember the magnetized armor.
Steve Schwartzman
December 10, 2013 at 2:24 PM
The colors are intoxicating.
ShimonZ
December 10, 2013 at 10:28 AM
They certainly got to me—in fact I experienced something in person that I was only able to approximate in the photograph; I couldn’t get it all.
Steve Schwartzman
December 10, 2013 at 2:26 PM
Just beautiful!
dhphotosite
December 10, 2013 at 1:20 PM
Thanks, David. Flameleaf sumac is one of the only answers Texas can make to the Northeast in the fall.
Steve Schwartzman
December 10, 2013 at 2:27 PM
Soapberry gives Northeasterners a good run for their money, too, having the dazzling yellow leaves that, when they drop, leave (appropriately enough) bouquets (panicles?) of berries that are equally brilliant in color–but even better, the berries are translucent and light up the trees like so many golden Christmas lights when the sun hits them.
Kathryn
December 10, 2013 at 7:14 PM
That’s a coincidence, because earlier this evening I was looking at western soapberry in a couple of field guides, trying to decide whether that’s what some of the small trees with bright leaves that I’ve been seeing are. Unfortunately I didn’t find any fruits on them to clinch the identification. There’s potential confusion with Chinese pistache, which of course isn’t native. In any case, I’m glad that at least one of us knows how to distinguish soapberry from other trees.
Steve Schwartzman
December 10, 2013 at 9:10 PM
We really don’t get this here. This is something I really like from the U.S.. The only truly deciduous tree we have is the almendro; but it doesn’t come anywhere near this colour.
Maria F.
December 10, 2013 at 9:19 PM
No, I’m afraid you’ve confirmed that Puerto Rico is too tropical a place to have bright fall foliage. Growing up in New York I experienced the real thing, and central Texas comes nowhere close, but I’m grateful for the vibrant colors a few species here provide on a smaller scale. Flameleaf sumac is one of our best providers.
Steve Schwartzman
December 10, 2013 at 9:35 PM
Steve, here, on my mountain in Virginia, Smooth Sumac (Rhus glabra) and Winged Sumac (Rhus copallina) compete for “best leaves of autumn” in my little world of favorites. And through the winter they continue to please me, drawing birds from near and far to eat those fruit on those panicles – clear to their pinnacles!
brenda clement jones
December 10, 2013 at 10:02 PM
Earlier this evening I was looking at a picture and description of Rhus glabra, which makes it into east Texas but stops short of Austin. The same is true for Rhus copallinum. It seems that all sumacs have colorful leaves in the fall, so I can understand your delight in having two species around you in your little world of favorites. And here’s to the panicles that service your animals, all the way up to the panicles’ pinnacles.
Steve Schwartzman
December 10, 2013 at 10:23 PM
meant to leave my blog site!
brenda clement jones
December 10, 2013 at 10:03 PM
This time the link works right, Brenda.
Steve Schwartzman
December 10, 2013 at 10:25 PM
Just last night my wife and I were discussing making sumac tea. Not sure if it can be done from this variety though. We have some growing right in front of our house and I’m embarrassed to say I can’t remember if this is the color of the fall leaves or not. Certainly beautiful.
Bill
December 11, 2013 at 5:42 AM
Now you have a combined incentive: to find out what species of sumac it is, then whether its fruit can make a tea, and finally whether the leaves turn colors in the fall. My guess is that the answer will be yes to the last two. In the meantime, I offer you the vicarious color of the one in this post’s photograph.
Steve Schwartzman
December 11, 2013 at 7:23 AM