PLANT: Shrubs with spreading branches, sometimes forming thickets, to 3 m tall; bark gray, lenticular; twigs brown, puberulent to glabrate. LEAVES: trifoliolate or palmately lobed to simple and unlobed; petioles 8-15 mm long; leaflets sessile, ovate to rhombic, crenate to deeply lobed, glabrous to puberulent; bases cuneate, sometimes narrowly so; terminal leaflet 15-35 mm long, 7-25 mm wide; foliage thin, deciduous and dark red in the fall. INFLORESCENCE: a short dense panicle of compound spikes, arising from lateral branches, and appearing early before the leaves in the spring, 10-15 mm long; bracts triangular, reddish, pubescent. FLOWERS: to 3 mm long; sepals ovate, pinkish, glabrate; petals obovate, pale yellow, glabrous. FRUIT: lenticular-orbicular, 6-8 mm in diameter, dull orange to dark reddish, villous and/or short glandular pubescent, viscid. NOTES: Throughout the U.S., except the northern Great Lakes and Pacific Northwest, also s Canada and n Mex. REFERENCES: John L. Anderson, 2006, Vascular Plants of Arizona: Anacardiaceae. CANOTIA 3 (2): 13-22.