Max Licher @http://swbiodiversity.org, Usage Rights: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA)
Yavapai County Native & Naturalized Plants
   
 
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Plant Image
Leaves
Max Licher @http://swbiodiversity.org, Usage Rights: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA)
Plant Image
Flowers
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Plant Image
Fruit
Max Licher @http://swbiodiversity.org, Usage Rights: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA)
Plant Description

Origin: Native  Similar Species: Rhus typhina, Rhus copallina, Ailanthus altissima, Toxicodendron vernix
General Description: Deciduous. A large shrub to small tree with short, crooked, leaning trunks and picturesque branches. Has a wide spreading, open crown.
Identification notes: Thicket-forming shrubs or small trees; bark dark gray; opposite or alternate, odd pinnately compound leaves, 11 to 31 leaflets, dark green above, paler beneath; small, pale yellow flowers in elongated clusters. Fruit pods, dark red, convex on both sides.
Height: To 20 feet     Width: To 20 feet


Habitat

Habitat Description: Found in rich soils in oak and ponderosa pine woodlands, in canyons and riparian zones, often forming thickets.
Plant Communities: Pinyon Juniper Woodland, Montane Conifer Forest, Riparian
Elevation: 5000 - 8000 feet


Flowers

Color: Pale yellow   Shape: Regular in elongated clusters    Tubular: N   Flowering Period: Jun - Aug
Description: Compact terminal clusters to 8 inches long. Clusters are made up of tiny, 5 petaled flowers, to 1/8 inch wide. Petals pale yellow, sepals green.


Leaves

Leaf Color: Dark green   Type: Compound   Shape: Narrow   Margin: Toothed   Attachment: Alternate   Hairs: N
Description: Leaflets are dark green and smooth above, paler beneath, turning bright red in fall. Odd (unpaired terminal leaflet) pinnately compound, to 12 inches long, with up to 31 lance-shaped leaflets to 4 inches long.


Fruit

Color: Red   Type: Pod   Description: Flowers are followed by bright red, hairy, somewhat rounded pods in erect, pyramidal clusters. Fruits mature from August to September and persist through the winter.


Bark/Branches

Bark Color: Gray   Bark Texture (Mature): Smooth   Bark and Branch Description: Smooth, with numerous lenticels (raised pores that allow gas exchange), developing scaly ridges with age.
Spines, thorns or prickles: N

  Arizona Cooperative Extension
Yavapai County
840 Rodeo Dr #C
Prescott, AZ 86305
(928) 445-6590
Version 8.0  
http://cales.arizona.edu/yavapaiplants/SpeciesDetail.php  
Last Updated: Dec 13, 2022
Content Questions/Comments: Email Matt Halldorson  
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