Sumac, although an east of the Cascade crest native, is found growing vigorously in the Gardens. Rainy-day kiosks were intended to act as shelters from our September – June rains … or in this year’s case, August – July. Inadvertently, we created a 4th drier climate zone on the kiosks’ rooftops. To mitigate for structures in wetlands, the kiosks’ roofs
became planters where we targeted plants for butterflies and moths specific to a larva’s need for survival (e.g., Kiosk 01’s Milkweed for Monarchs … a plant more often found to the east). In the seeds was a Sumac’s, that is now growing by the bridge at Kiosk 14. Indigenous Peoples ate the sprouts and smoked the dry leaves. You will find a few other non-native plants in the Gardens, e.g., Lingonberry from BC, Foxglove from Portugal (so pretty, we won’t remove them when found). PLC’s sponsored WWU SAM’s Project has no extinction data for the Sumac, but we believe it is slim to none as this species exhibits, as do other Eastern Washington natives that keep appearing, the ability to migrate.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhus_glabra
http://naeb.brit.org/uses/search/?string=Rhus+glabra
https://plants.usda.gov/home/plantProfile?symbol=RHGL
https://www.plc215.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Kiosk-14.pdf
https://burkeherbarium.org/imagecollection/taxon.php?Taxon=Rhus%20glabra
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