Common Name(s): | Sugar Bush |
Scientific Name: | Rhus ovata |
Family: | Anacardiaceae (Sumac) |
Plant Type: | Shrub |
Size: | 8-15' H x 10' W |
Habitat: | Chaparral - South facing slopes |
Blooms: | March to June |
Fire Response: | Stump Sprout or Seed |
Sugar Bush - Rhus ovata, is an evergreen plant that grows as a shrub or small tree and thrives on south facing slopes below 1300 meters. It is native to Southern California, Arizona, and Baja California. Sugar Bush varies in size from two to more than eight meters in height.
As a tree, it has a rounded appearance. As a shrub, spreading in width rather than height it looks kind of like a thicket. The twigs are thick and reddish in color. The leaves are dark green on the top, dull on the bottom, leathery, and folded in the middle. The leaf pattern is alternate (one on this side and then one on that side). Typically, the leaves have no serrations but occasionally they do have some serrations. Flower clusters at the ends of branches are small (two to three inches long. They are five-petaled, flowers that appear to be pink, but instead have white to pink petals with red sepals. The fruit is a small reddish, sticky fleshy fruit surrounding a pit (like a peach or cherry) that botanists call a Drupe.Name Origin: Rhus is the Greek word for one Sumac species; ovata is from the Latin word for “egg”, referring to the oval shape of the leaves.
Sugar Bush - Originally featured: June 2016
Last modified: March 31 2017 21:26:29.References:
Wildflowers of the Santa Monica Mountains, by Milt McAuley
Flowering Plants: The Santa Monica Mountains, Coastal and Chaparral Regions of Southern California, by Nancy Dale
Chumash Ethnobotany: Plant Knowledge Among the Chumash People.., by Jan Timbrook
Images Botanical Terms for Leaves