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. (2013) As Rhus lancea L. f.

Control:  If you know of control methods for Searsia lancea, please let us know.