Tiger Eyes Sumac
Rhus typhina ‘Bailtiger’ · a gold cutleaf staghorn sumac
A compact cut-leaf sumac with bold, ferny leaves that open chartreuse, turn bright yellow in summer and orange and scarlet in fall, a blaze of colour for a bed. It thrives in any well-drained soil, even stony ground, and handles drought once settled. It's late to leaf out in spring and dislikes wet soil.
- Mature size
- 5 × 5 ft
- 1.5 × 1.5 m, tall × wide
- Hardiness
- Zones 4a–8b
- USDA
- Sun
- Full sun to part shade
- Water
- Dry to medium
- Blooms
- Jun–Jul
- Fall color Oct
Tiger Eyes Sumac at its mature size
A mature Tiger Eyes Sumac grows 3 to 6 feet tall and just as wide.
Drawn to scale beside a 5 ft 9 in person. With VeraScape, you see it at this size in your own yard.
Typical mature size, unpruned. Sources: The Morton Arboretum, The Tree Center.
Through the year
What Tiger Eyes Sumac looks like month by month in a typical zone 6–7 garden.
Dormant · Nov–Apr
Bare fuzzy antler-like stems.
In leaf · May–Sep
Feathery chartreuse-gold leaves on fuzzy rosy stems.
Fall · Oct
Leaves turned orange and scarlet.
Growing Tiger Eyes Sumac
- Grows well in
- The Northeast, the Midwest, and the Plains and Mountain West.
- Growth rate
- Fast
- Good for
- Small space, foundation planting, specimen, drought tolerant, pollinators, fall color, and fast growing
- Leaves
- Drops its leaves in winter
- Native to
- Eastern North America
Spacing
VeraScape spaces plants so their grown canopies just touch. For Tiger Eyes Sumac, that’s about 5 ft apart, center to center.
Place a row in your own yard and VeraScape spaces them at their mature width, so you can see whether they’ll crowd the walk.
See Tiger Eyes Sumac in your yard before you dig
Visualize it at its true size, alongside the rest of your design.