Plantae > Tracheophyta > Magnoliopsida > Sapindales > Anacardiaceae > Rhus > Rhus microphylla

Rhus microphylla (littleleaf sumac)

Synonyms:

Wikipedia Abstract

Rhus microphylla, the littleleaf sumac, desert sumac, correosa, or agritos, is a species of sumac in the family Anacardiaceae, native to North America, in the southwestern United States and northern and central Mexico, from central and western Texas, southern New Mexico, central and northern regions of the Mexican Altiplano-(Mexican Plateau), and extreme southeastern Arizona of the Madrean Sky Islands.
View Wikipedia Record: Rhus microphylla

Attributes

Air Quality Improvement [1]  None
Allergen Potential [1]  High
Carbon Capture [1]  Low
Screening - Summer [2]  Moderate
Screening - Winter [2]  Moderate
Shade Percentage [1]  85 %
Temperature Reduction [1]  Low
Wind Reduction [1]  Low
Bloom Period [2]  Spring
Drought Tolerance [2]  High
Edible [3]  May be edible. See the Plants For A Future link below for details.
Fire Tolerance [2]  High
Flower Type [3]  Dioecious
Frost Free Days [2]  5 months
Fruit/Seed Abundance [2]  Medium
Fruit/Seed Begin [2]  Summer
Fruit/Seed End [2]  Fall
Growth Form [2]  Multiple Stem
Growth Period [2]  Spring, Summer
Growth Rate [2]  Moderate
Hazards [3]  There are some suggestions that the sap of this species can cause a skin rash in susceptible people, but this has not been substantiated. See also notes in 'Cultivation Details'.
Leaf Type [3]  Deciduous
Lifespan [2]  Perennial
Pollinators [3]  Bees
Propagation [2]  Bare Root, Container, Cutting, Seed
Root Depth [2]  12 inches (30 cm)
Seed Spread Rate [2]  Slow
Seed Vigor [2]  Medium
Seeds Per [2]  18000 / lb (39683 / kg)
Shape/Orientation [2]  Rounded
Structure [3]  Shrub
Usage [3]  An oil is extracted from the seeds; It attains a tallow-like consistency on standing and is used to make candles. These burn brilliantly, though they emit a pungent smoke; The leaves are rich in tannin. They can be collected as they fall in the autumn and used as a brown dye or as a mordant;
Vegetative Spread Rate [2]  None
Flower Color [2]  White
Foliage Color [2]  Green
Fruit Color [2]  Red
Fall Conspicuous [2]  Yes
Fruit Conspicuous [2]  Yes
Height [3]  6.56 feet (2 m)
Width [1]  19 feet (5.7 m)
Hardiness Zone Minimum [1]  USDA Zone: 6 Low Temperature: -10 F° (-23.3 C°) → 0 F° (-17.8 C°)
Hardiness Zone Maximum [1]  USDA Zone: 9 Low Temperature: 20 F° (-6.7 C°) → 30 F° (-1.1 C°)
Light Preference [2]  Full Sun
Soil Acidity [2]  Neutral
Soil Fertility [2]  Infertile
Water Use [1]  Moderate to Low
View Plants For A Future Record : Rhus microphylla

Protected Areas

Name IUCN Category Area acres Location Species Website Climate Land Use
Carlsbad Caverns National Park II 15448 New Mexico, United States
Fort Bowie National Historic Site III 1004 Arizona, United States
Jornada Biosphere Reserve Ib 30913 New Mexico, United States
White Sands National Monument III 139922 New Mexico, United States

Predators

Hemileuca chinatiensis (Chinati Sheepmoth)[4]
Turdus migratorius (American Robin)[5]

Range Map

External References

USDA Plant Profile

NatureServe Explorer

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
♦ 1i-Tree Species v. 4.0, developed by the USDA Forest Service's Northern Research Station and SUNY-ESF using the Horticopia, Inc. plant database.
♦ 2USDA Plants Database, U. S. Department of Agriculture
♦ 3Plants For A Future licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
♦ 4HOSTS - a Database of the World's Lepidopteran Hostplants Gaden S. Robinson, Phillip R. Ackery, Ian J. Kitching, George W. Beccaloni AND Luis M. Hernández
♦ 5Jorrit H. Poelen, James D. Simons and Chris J. Mungall. (2014). Global Biotic Interactions: An open infrastructure to share and analyze species-interaction datasets. Ecological Informatics.
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0