Searsia lancea (L. f.) F. A. Barkley, Anacardiaceae

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Present on Pacific Islands?  no

Primarily a threat at high elevations?  no

Risk assessment results:  High risk, score: 8 (Go to the risk assessment)

Other Latin names:  Rhus lancea L. f. (basionym); Rhus viminalis Aiton

Common name(s): [more details]

English: African sumac, western karee, willow rhus

Habit:  shrub/tree

Description:  "Trees or shrubs, to 10 m tall; old bark dark gray, fissured and orange beneath; twigs reddish. Leaves evergreen, trifoliate; petioles 25-30 mm long; leaflets subsessile, narrowly lancelolate, entire to slightly serrate, 4-10 cm long, 0.5-1.0 cm wide, entire, leathery, dark shiny green above, pale-green beneath, glabrous; apex acuminate; base narrowly cuneate. Inflorescences open panicles, 2-9 cm long, terminal and axillary; bracts linear-subulate. Flowers to 3 mm long; sepals ovate, glabrous; petals oblong-ovate, greenish yellow, glabrous. Fruit globose, to 5 mm in diameter, tan, resinous, wrinkled" (John L. Anderson, U.S. Bureau of Land Management).

Habitat/ecology:  In the United States, "cultivated as an ornamental in the Sonoran Desert, escaping and naturalized in canyons in the Rincon and Tucson Mts. in Pima County [Arizona]"  (John L. Anderson, U.S. Bureau of Land Management).

Propagation:  Seed, spread by birds.

Native range:  Southern Africa, naturalized elsewhere (GRIN).

Presence:

Pacific Rim
Country/Terr./St. & Island group	Location	Cited status & Cited as invasive & Cited as cultivated & Cited as aboriginal introduction?	Reference & Comments
United States (west coast) United States (west coast states)	USA (California)	introduced	U.S. Dept. Agr., Nat. Res. Cons. Serv. (2011) As Rhus lancea L. f.

Additional information:
Additional online information about Searsia lancea is available from the Hawaiian Ecosystems at Risk project (HEAR).

Information about Searsia lancea as a weed (worldwide references) may be available from the Global Compendium of Weeds (GCW).

Taxonomic information about Searsia lancea may be available from the Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN).

References:

U.S. Dept. Agr., Agr. Res. Serv. 2011. National Genetic Resources Program. Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN). Online searchable database.

U.S. Dept. Agr., Nat. Res. Cons. Serv. 2011. The PLANTS Database. National Plant Data Center, Baton Rouge, LA 70874-4490 USA.