Botanists play the mating game with endangered species of sumac

ELBERTON - A little-known Georgia plant is living out its own version of the classical romance of Odysseus and Penelope - lovers separated for 20 years by war and Odysseus' questing while Penelope waited patiently for the Greek hero to come home.

But the boys and girls of the dwarf sumac species have been waiting even longer for each other's company - possibly a century or more.

Never very abundant, the inconspicuous little plants exist in just three states: Virginia, North Carolina and Georgia.

And in Georgia, the dwarf sumac had dwindled to just two populations in the 20th century - a group with female flowers that lives under a Newton County water tower, and a group of male-flowering plants on a secluded bluff about 80 miles away above the Broad River in Elbert County, said Mincy Moffett, a botanist with the state Department of Natural Resources' nongame conservation section.

But now romance may blossom at last between the male and female sumacs - with a little help from a band of dedicated plant conservationists.

After a separation of no one really knows how long, botanists are bringing female sumacs (Rhus michauxii, for the scientifically inclined) to the males' home in a remote area of the Broad River Wildlife Management Area - hoping that a new generation of sumacs will follow.

And on Friday, love bloomed, or at least the botanists set the stage for it. The ti

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