Shrubs or trees, usually dioecious, rarely with bisexual flowers; sometimes armed; prominently lenticellate
Leaves
alternate, usually 3-foliolate, entire, crenate to coarsely dentate, usually petiolate, with petiole sometimes winged
Flowers
unisexual, very rarely bisexual, in axillary or terminal panicles, bracteate
Calyx
(4)5(6)-partite, sometimes with segments unequal
Petals
(4)5(6), usually inconspicuous
Disc
usually 5(-10)-crenate
Male flowers
: stamens 5; pistil rudimentary
Female flowers
: staminodes usually 5; ovary 3-carpous, 1(2, 3)-locular with 1(2, 3) ovules, subglobose or compressed; styles 3, free; stigmas usually ± capitate
Fruit
a small globoid or compressed drupe
Seeds
reniform, exalbuminous
x = 15 (aneuploids, polyploidy, B-chromosomes)
Nomenclature:
Rhus
L.
Linnaeus: 265 (1753)
Sonder: 504 (1860) in part
Schonland: 3 (1930)
Fernandes & Fernandes: 590 (1966)
Fernandes: 321 (1967)
Moffett: 1 (1993)
Searsia
Barkley
Barkley: 472 (1942)
Distribution & Notes:
Global
: Species ± 200, mostly tropical and subtropical countries
Southern Africa
: Species ± 75, widespread in forest and scrub
References:
BARKLEY, F.A. 1942. A key to the genera of the
Anacardiaceae
.
American Midland Naturalist
28
FERNANDES, R. & FERNANDES, A. 1966.
Anacardiaceae
.
Flora zambesiaca
2,2
FERNANDES, R. 1967. Estudas nas
Anacardiaceae
Africanas 5. - Combinações novas no género
Rhus
L. e nota sobre Rh. engleri Britt.
Boletim da Sociedade Broteriana
, ser. 2, 39
LINNAEUS, C. 1753.
Species plantarum
. Laurentius Salvius, Stockholm
MOFFETT, R.O. 1993.
Rhus
.
Flora of southern Africa
19, 3
SCHONLAND, S. 1930. The South African species of
Rhus
L.
Bothalia
3
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