Rhus chinensis

The Chinese sumac or The nutgall tree is in the cashew or Anacardiaceae family and is native to Himalayas, from Kashmir to Bhutan, NE India, Ceylon, Burma, east to China, Korea and Japan. It is an open-spreading large shrub or small tree that grows to 4–8 m tall.

The tree is often infected by Chinese sumac aphids which may lead to the production of a gall, which is valued in China for use in Chinese medicine.

• Branchlets are rusty velvet-hairy.
• Leaves are alternate, pinnately compound and up to 60 cm long with 7–13 lanciolate, sharply-toothed leaflets per leaf, 5–13 cm long, bright green above and brown pubescent beneath, stockless leaflet blade ovate to oblong, increasing in size toward tip, 6–12 cm long and 3–7 cm across, margin toothed, often rounded toothed, tip pointed. Fall colors vary from insignificant to excellent yellow/orange/red colors in some climates.
• Plants are dioecious (separate male and female plants); creamy white flowers in large, rounded panicles 15–23 cm long bloom in late summer, male clusters 30-40 cm long, female ones shorter. Flower stalks are 1 mm long, minutely velvet-hairy; flowers white or pale yellowish-green.
• Fruit is spherical, 4–5 mm in diameter, slightly compressed, with heads containing numerous showy, hairy, berry-like drupes that ripen to red in fall.