Food: The berries were eaten raw or ground into a “meal” for soup.

Medicinal: Rhus trilobata produces berries that were used for smallpox and sores. Leaves were also used for colds. A decoction of the leaves was taken as a diuretic.

Basketry: Sumac stems and Tsameesh were a main source of basketry material.

Spiritual: The berries were used to make ceremonial body paint.

Utensils: Seed beaters used in the gathering of seeds were made from the stems of Sumac.

A diffusely branched shrub.

R. trilobata blossoms March to April.

It is found in canyons and washes of interior valleys below 3500 feet; Coastal Sage Scrub, Chaparral, Southern Oak Woodlands.