DAY 221 (12 NOVEMBER) – Virginia sumac (Rhus typhina) (Hog’s Back, Surrey)
Found myself unavoidably at the Hog’s Back Hotel today. And in haste could only find this tree in the grounds with candle-like flowers (or fruits?). Close up they are densely-packed red tufty things and quite ugly. They turned out to belong to a Virginia (or staghorn) sumac, which I didn’t recognise at the same species I’d snapped earlier in the year. Ericus Torner’s description: ‘ramis hirtis uti typhi cervini’ means ‘the branches are rough like antlers in velvet’. Yes, well maybe.
