Rhus copallina? (no, it's Aralia) Compound leaves flowering September

Is this a Rhus copallina and why is it flowering now (mid-September)? The only photo I could find of a sumac with the white flowers was of a Rhus copallina, Winged sumac, but it was supposed to be flowering in the summer. The leaves are compound, 12 leaflets - opposite, with a terminal one and the one nearest the stem is single also, thus an even number of leaflets on the leaves (leaflets?) we looked at.

It seems like it might be three trees, with two of them forming multiple trunks. That fits the description of this species. These trees are at the West End Community Centre (Vancouver). Wikipedia mentions in the description:

The tree can be planted in a container or above-ground planter; recommended for buffer strips around parking lots or for median strip plantings in the highway; reclamation plant; specimen; tree has been successfully grown in urban areas where air pollution, poor drainage, compacted soil, and/or drought are common.
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This location is somewhat similar to that, though the species is listed under eastern North America, but it's clearly not a native sprouting.

 

Re: Rhus copallina? Compound leaves flowering September

Aralia sp. The common one is A. elata.

 

Re: Rhus copallina? Compound leaves flowering September

Thanks, Ron. That explains the late blooming - Wikipedia says of A. elata:

The flowers are produced in large umbels in late summer
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We're still running two weeks late, so that fits. We didn't notice a fragrance, so it's probably that one. It's supposed to send up from runners new plants several feet from the original, so maybe this was one tree originally.

 

Did I get more than the name wrong? Are these the fruits rather than the flowers?

 

Yep. Flowers developing into fruits. Quick way to tell A elata from Sumac...touch it. The A. elata is spiny. Sumac isn't - in fact it's pleasantly furry on the young growth as I recall.

gb.

 

Thanks for sending me the link, Wendy. When I was back east in Washington, D.C., I took photos of a couple of different varieties of something similar - I wonder if it's the same.

In white:



And in lavender:



Also, is there any relationship between these species and the butterfly bush?

Laura 3:)

 

These last are Lagerstroemia, really quite different from the others - for starters producing simple rather than compound leaves. Buddleja davidii is different also, although it does produce simple leaves as well. About the only significant horticultural similarity is spike-like terminal flowerheads in summer, the structure of the individual flowers (and the rest of the shrub) otherwise not similar at all. Crape myrtles are pretty much unique among hardy trees and shrubs. Here the cool summers tend to result in autumnal flowering only, although this year many started up in July.