Sunday, 8:00 AM. 45 degrees, wind SW, light. The channel is crawling slightly and the sky is mostly overcast, but the barometer predicts sunny skies.A bear has enjoyed most of the shaggy mane mushrooms on Manypenny, and has left his calling card on the road.
The fuzzy fruits of the female stag-horn sumac, Rhus typhina, in the cashew family, are now fully ripe. They are not actually edible, but if placed in the mouth produce a tingling, pleasant, lemony taste. They are a good thing to quench one’s thirst with on a hot fall day a-field when no water is available. This plant has exhibited strong antiseptic qualities, and decoctions were once used as mouthwash for sore and bleeding gums and for skin problems. I think the berries would make a very nice tea but I have not read of them being used in this fashion.
In ingesting any plant, one should always keep in mind the properties of its close relatives, and the sumacs are in the same genus as poison ivy and poison oak, and the poison sumac, Rhus vernix, is highly toxic. The latter cannot easily be confused with other sumacs, however, as it has waxy white fruits and the other sumacs have fuzzy red fruits. It is also usually found in swamps, and other sumacs in drier locations.
Our guests have left. We had a fine visit and they leave for Milwaukee laden with apples and driftwood.
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