This section is from the book "Harper's Guide To Wild Flowers", by Caroline A. Creevey. Also available from Amazon: Harper's Guide To Wild Flowers.
R. glabra is our most common species, lining the roadsides and covering barren fields, the foliage turning a rich, dark crimson color in fall. This shrub rarely reaches a height of 10 feet. Its pinnate leaves are often 1 foot long, leaflets numbering 11 to 31, sharply toothed, the veins ending in the sinuses. Flowers, in large, close, compound, terminal clusters, forming a bunch of small, velvety, crimson-haired berries, of an acid, pleasant taste.
Dry soil, over all the Eastern States.
 
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