The Sumach

Ulric Daubeny's “The Sumach,” published in his collection The Elemental: Tales of the Supernormal and the Inexplicable (1919).

Daubeny’s “The Sumach” successfully merges the weird biological/plant story with that of the vampire tale. Indeed, the eponymous sumach, as presented in the story, is both an artifact of nature and an agent of the supernatural. It is, for the lack of a better term, a vampire plant.

  With a premise as uncanny such as this, it’s notable that Daubeny is able to weave a tale that never descends into camp or parody. “The Sumach” remains a story in which a woman, in her quest to solve the mystery of her cousin’s tragic demise, comes face to face with a plant that has taken on the characteristics of a vampire that once haunted the English countryside.

Horror literature, horror fiction, a vampire plant, Horror, Short Stories, Fiction, Classics, Mystery, Suspense