General: Skunkbush Sumac (Rhus trilobata) is a fairly tall, upright shrub with 3-lobed leaves, yellow flowers, and clusters of red to red-orange berries.

Skunkbush Sumac is a fairly common component of vegetation communities on well-drained sandy, gravelly, and rocky soils. It is most often found along washes, but it is also found on upper bajadas and moderate slopes into the lower mountains in the Upper Sonoran (Mojave Desert Scrub and Pinyon-Juniper Woodland) life zone.

Family: Sumac or Cashew (Anacardiaceae).

Other Names: Formerly Squawbush.

Plant Form: deciduous shrub.

Height: Usually 4 to 6-feet tall, to about 8-feet.

Stems: Bark gray, somewhat striated.

Leaves: Deciduous; shape is variable: some version of three lobes ranging from nearly entire to three nearly separate leaflets, margins lobed, to about 1.5 inches long and across.

Flowers: Blooms mid to late spring. Petals five, yellow.

Seeds: Fruit: drupe (fleshy fruit with a pit like a cherry), to about 1/3-inch diameter, red.

Habitat: Dry, well-drained sandy, gravelly, and rocky soils on upper bajadas and moderate slopes in the lower mountains.

Elevation: To about 7,000 feet.

Distribution: California to southern Canada and east to the central U.S.; south into northern Mexico.

Comments: Susceptible to a gall wasp which creates small, white bumps on the leaves.