Searsia lucida (L.) F.A.Barkley

Species

Angiosperms > Sapindales > Anacardiaceae > Searsia

Characteristics

Glabrous, or branches pulverulent-puberulous; leaves shortly petiolate; leaflets sessile, obovate, quite entire, very blunt, somewhat emarginate, quite smooth, glossy, without prominent nerves on both sides or above; panicles axillary and terminal, shorter or a little longer than the leaves, glabrous; flowers hermaphrodite; drupe globose, glabrous. Height 4-6 feet. Wood hard and tough. Branches terete, greyish. Petioles 3-6 lines long, carinate, with small wings. Leaflets coriaceous, resinous, shining, commonly without nerves and veins, rarely on the under surface somewhat ribbed, obtuse, retuse, rarely with a blunt, short acumen, very unequal, in var. (Delta). 1-1.4. inch long, inch wide, some 2-2.5 inches long, inch wide, others no more than an inch long and 6-8 lines wide. Axillary panicles or racemes shorter or of the length of the leaves, the terminal ones longer. Flowers minute, whitish. Drupe the size of a pea.
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Tree or shrub, 0.5-3.0 m high; evergreen, much branched, unarmed; bark greyish brown, granular, branchlets ascending, striate. Leaves crowded, petioles slightly winged, trifoliolate; leaflets sessile, subcoriaceous, dark olive-green above, somewhat glutinous becoming glaucescent, widely obovate to oblong, margins entire, sometimes paucicrenate near apex. Inflorescence mostly axillary panicles, within foliage, occasionally terminal; females sparingly branched. Flowers small, creamy white; calyx lobes deeply segmented. Fruit a drupe, circular, globoid to obloid, glabrous, shiny, dark brown.
A shrub or small tree. It grows 2-3 m tall. It can be 5 m tall and spread 4 m across. The leaves are shiny. They have 3 leaflets. The flowers are white. The fruit are green. They become red-brown as they ripen. They are 5 mm across.
Dioecious, evergreen shrub to 3 m. Leaves trifoliolate, leaflets sessile, obovate to spathulate, shiny. Flowers yellow. Drupes round, shiny.
Life form perennial
Growth form shrub
Growth support free-standing
Foliage retention evergreen
Sexuality
Pollination -
Spread -
Mature width (meter) 4.0
Mature height (meter) 2.25 - 3.0
Root system -
Rooting depth (meter) -
Root diameter (meter) -
Flower color
Blooming months -
Fruit color
Fruiting months -
Nitrogen fixer -
Photosynthetic pathway -

Environment

It is a subtropical plant. It grows from sea level to 2,000 m above sea level in South Africa.
More
Scrub and forests at elevations up to 2,100 metres.
Light -
Soil humidity 1-3
Soil texture 4-7
Soil acidity -
Soil nutriment -
Hardiness (USDA) 9-12

Usage

Uses material medicinal wood
Edible fruits
Therapeutic use -
Human toxicity -
Animal toxicity -

Cultivation

Can be grown by seedlings.
Mode seedlings
Germination duration (days) -
Germination temperacture (C°) -
Germination luminosity -
Germination treatment -
Minimum temperature (C°) -
Optimum temperature (C°) -
Size -
Vigor -
Productivity -

Images

Leaf

Searsia lucida leaf picture by Maarten Vanhove (cc-by-sa)
Searsia lucida leaf picture by Maarten Vanhove (cc-by-sa)
Searsia lucida leaf picture by Maarten Vanhove (cc-by-sa)

Fruit

Searsia lucida fruit picture by Maarten Vanhove (cc-by-sa)

Distribution

Searsia lucida world distribution map, present in Lesotho, South Africa, and Zimbabwe

Conservation status

Searsia lucida threat status: Least Concern

Identifiers

LSID urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:71179-1
WFO ID wfo-0000434839
COL ID 4W74P
BDTFX ID -
INPN ID -
Wikipedia (EN) Link
Wikipedia (FR)

Synonyms

Toxicodendron lucidum Rhus africana Rhus outeniquensis Toxicodendron africanum Searsia lucida Rhus cavanillesii Rhus schlechteri Rhus lucida Searsia africana Rhus lucida var. outeniquensis