PLANT: Densely branched shrubs or small trees, to 3.5 m tall; old bark dark, scaly; branches tan to gray, densely puberulent to glabrate later.
LEAVES: simple, entire to serrulate, broadly elliptic, 2-6 cm long, 1.5-3.7 cm wide, leathery, olive-green, with glandular hairs beneath, glabrous to sparsely hirtellous above; tip rounded to acuminate; base rounded to cordate; petioles 3-10 mm long.
INFLORESCENCE: dense panicles, 2-4.5 cm long, puberulent; bracts lanceolate to ovate, glandularpuberulent, to 3 mm long.
FLOWERS: to 5 mm long; sepals pinkish, puberulent; petals cream, glabrous.
FRUIT: lenticular-orbicular, irregular in outline, 10 mm long, 8 mm wide, mottled brown and yellow, glandular-pubescent, viscid.
NOTES: 3 subsp.; sw AZ, Baja CA.
REFERENCES: John L. Anderson, 2006, Vascular Plants of Arizona: Anacardiaceae. CANOTIA 3 (2): 13-22.