Ever since we moved here, I thought this little shrub on the back slope next to the garden was a mountain ash. For some reason....not sure why, now.
I found one just like it at the nursery and realized that it is actually a staghorn sumac.
The two are not really very similar, now that I know more about the sumac.
Oops! Oh well. Glad to know the real name.
It's funny how just knowing for sure what it is has made me like it even that much more. It's like greeting a friend vs. an aquaintance.
Here you can see one of my favorite things about it:
the new growth is so fuzzy!
Other favorites traits:
those strange but cool seed heads
the gorgeous fall leaf colors
the fact that we haven't killed it off yet with all of our wall-building and dirt-moving projects around it