PLANT: Vines climbing with aerial roots to 30 m or sparsely branched rhizomatous shrubs, to 1.5 m tall; branches puberulent to glabrous. LEAVES: trifoliolate (rarely 5 foliolate); petioles puberulent to glabrous, 2-17 cm long; terminal leaflets with a petiolule to 3 cm long; lateral leaflets subsessile; leaflets narrowly to broadly ovate, 2-7 cm wide, 3-13 cm long entire or notched to crenate or serrate; bases rounded; apices acuminate. INFLORESCENCE: a short, narrow panicle to 5 cm long, bracts lanceolate, deciduous. FLOWERS: to 3 mm long; sepals deltoid, greenish, glabrate; petals oblanceolate, cream to yellowish with dark veins. FRUIT globose, to 5 mm in diameter, cream, striate, glabrous. NOTES: 10 vars., 2 in AZ their ranges meeting in se AZ where intermediates occur. REFERENCES: John L. Anderson, 2006, Vascular Plants of Arizona: Anacardiaceae. CANOTIA 3 (2): 13-22.