PLANT: Dioecious shrubs with rhizomes to 1.5 m tall, or vines climbing with aerial roots to 30 m tall. LEAVES: trifoliolate; leaflets ovate, entire to serrate, terminal leaflets with a petiolule, the lateral leaflets subsessile. INFLORESCENCE: narrow panicles, pendant in fruit. FLOWERS: small, regular, five-merous; sepals connate at base, glabrous; petals cream to yellowish with dark veins; style three-lobed. FRUIT: cream-colored, striate and glabrous. NOTES: Ca. 15 spp; New World and e Asia. (Latin: poisonous tree). Gillis, W. T. 1971. Rhodora 72-237, 370-443. The ever present active poisonous compounds in the resin on the leaves, stems and fruits are catechols that cause dermatitis. REFERENCES: John L. Anderson, 2006, Vascular Plants of Arizona: Anacardiaceae. CANOTIA 3 (2): 13-22.