The Canyon’s Own Perfume

LAUREL SUMAC

Rhus laurina

                   Illustration by Mary-Anne King

Carolanne Sudderth

Mirror Staff Writer

   This is the shrub that perfumes the air with that woodsy-herbal aroma typical of hot days in Topanga or the Palisades. The one that makes people ask, “Mmm, what smells so good?” when they hop out of their air-conditioned cars.
   It’s the laurel-sumac, the big dark green mound of shrub rampant in both the chaparral and coastal sage scrub ecosystems, which is to say, throughout Southern California. Right now, the tops of these are frosted vanilla-white and spiky with buds that will have burst their sepals by the time this goes to print.
   Like the lilac, laurel-sumac flowers bloom in an upright triangular cluster (panicle). The flowers themselves are tiny, barely an eighth of an inch wide but are set so close to together that their mass makes them showy.
   Usually a large dense shrub, laurel-sumac attains a height of five to 12 feet and can become a small tree. Branches and stems are bright crimson when young. The resinous leaves are two to four inches long and alternately arranged. Creased down the middle, they arch back on themselves, like the back, of someone stretching after a good sleep. In shape they range from ovate (egg-shaped) to lanceolate (self-explanatory) and have smooth sided margins that are slightly notched at the tip (or mucronate). Their dark-green color is blushed with burgundy, reflecting the color of their stems.
   This California native is used as a landscape plant, but can more often be seen growing in canyons and wild places. Look for it beside the road in Topanga Canyon and behind chain link fences in the abandoned estates of Castellamare.