''Rhus coriaria'', commonly called Sicilian sumac, tanner's sumach, or elm-leaved sumach, is a

deciduous In the fields of horticulture and botany, the term deciduous () means "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed Leaf, leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, aft ...

shrub to small tree in the cashew family Anacardiaceae. It is native to southern Europe and western Asia. The dried fruits are used as a spice, particularly in combination with other spices in the mixture called za'atar.

Etymology

The word originally comes from Hebrew סמק, then through the

Aramaic Aramaic (; ) is a Northwest Semitic language that originated in the ancient region of Syria and quickly spread to Mesopotamia, the southern Levant, Sinai, southeastern Anatolia, and Eastern Arabia, where it has been continually written a ...

''summāqā'' 'red', via Arabic, Latin, and French.''

Oxford English Dictionary The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the principal historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP), a University of Oxford publishing house. The dictionary, which published its first editio ...

'', 3rd edition, September 2019
''s.v.''
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Distribution and habitat

''Rhus coriaria'' is native to the

Eastern Mediterranean The Eastern Mediterranean is a loosely delimited region comprising the easternmost portion of the Mediterranean Sea, and well as the adjoining land—often defined as the countries around the Levantine Sea. It includes the southern half of Turkey ...

Crimea Crimea ( ) is a peninsula in Eastern Europe, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, almost entirely surrounded by the Black Sea and the smaller Sea of Azov. The Isthmus of Perekop connects the peninsula to Kherson Oblast in mainland Ukrain ...

Caucasus The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region spanning Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is situated between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, comprising parts of Southern Russia, Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan. The Caucasus Mountains, i ...

and northern

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

, but is now naturalized in most of the Mediterranean Basin as well as Macaronesia.

Cultivation

The plant will grow in any type of soil that is deep and well-drained.Plants for a Future database
accessed August 2010

Uses

The fruit has a sour taste; dried and crushed, it is a popular spice in the Middle East, used especially in the spice mixture za'atar. Immature fruits and seeds are also eaten. Mature fruits were also known well before lemons to the Europeans since the times of the ancient Romans, who appreciated its sourness and used it in vinaigrettes like lemons in modern times. It is traditionally used and also clinically investigated for lipid lowering effects. The leaves and the bark were traditionally used in leather tanning and contain

tannic acid Tannic acid is a specific form of tannin, a type of polyphenol. Its weak acidity (Acid dissociation constant, pKa around 6) is due to the numerous phenol groups in the structure. The chemical formula for commercial tannic acid is often given as ...

. Dyes of various colours, red, yellow, black, and brown, can be made from different parts of the plant. Oil extracted from the seeds can be used to make candles.

Images

Image:ZUMAQUES.jpg, Cultivated ''R. coriaria'', with olive trees, in Spain Image:Sumac.jpg, Spice (ground fruit) for sale in Istanbul Image:Sumak.jpg, Spice, close-up

References

coriaria Spices Flora of Europe Flora of Western Asia Flora of Central Asia Plants described in 1753 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus {{Anacardiaceae-stub