African sumac
Searsia lancea (L.f.) F.A.Barkley
- light
- Sun–part
- water
- Medium
- tall
- 8.0 m
- wide
- 5.0 m
Anacardiaceae
Also called Karree, Karee-rhus, Bastard Willoa, Bastard Willow, Common Karee
Formerly Rhus denudata, Rhus fragrans, Rhus lancea, Toxicodendron lanceum
When it flowers
Not known yet in the tropics: too few flowering observations to read a season from.
Read from iNaturalist photographs of it in flower. A month counts at 50% of the best month's flowering share (smoothed over three months) and 10% of its flowering count, from at least 100 flowering observations in the band.
If a child, a pet or anyone may have eaten a plant, contact a doctor or vet straight away, or call the National Poisons Information Centre (AIIMS, New Delhi) on 1800 116 117, free and open 24 hours.
Something wrong with it?About it
- Grows as
- TreeKew's checklist, not yet checked
- Climate
- Desert or dry shrublandKew's checklist, not yet checked
- Wild in
- Zambia to S. AfricaKew's checklist, not yet checked
- Light
- Full sun to part shade (3 h or more)Read from RHS, one source
- Height
- 8.0 mRead from RHS and Wikipedia, checked by a majority of its sourcesBacked by both sources. Sources differ: RHS 4–8 m; Wikipedia 8–8 m
- Spread
- 5.0 mRead from RHS and Wikipedia, checked by a majority of its sourcesBacked by both sources. Sources differ: RHS 4–8 m; Wikipedia 5–5 m
- Water
- Average: moist, well drainedRead from RHS and Wikipedia, not yet checked: its sources are splitTied: no reading has a majority of the 2 sources, so all are kept for a person to settle. Sources differ: RHS medium; Wikipedia low
- Flowers
- YellowRead from RHS and Wikipedia, checked by a majority of its sourcesBacked by both sources. Sources differ: RHS green, yellow; Wikipedia yellow
- Coldest it survives
- -20 °C (USDA zone 6b)Read from RHS, one source
Not known yet: heat, hottest it survives.
In other languages (6)
- French
- Sumac africain
- root
- moshabela, mosilabele, motshotiso
- Afrikaans
- Grootkaree, Rooikaree, Swartkaree
- German
- Kareebaum, Afrikanische Rivierwe, Weiden-Essigbaum
- Russian
- Сеарзия копьевидная
- Chinese
- 三葉漆
Where this comes from
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-25, CC0-1.0 (observation counts)
- Kew's checklist, read 2026-10-24, CC-BY-4.0
- RHS, read 2026-10-25, fact, cited
- Wikipedia, read 2026-10-25, fact, cited
- Wikimedia Commons, read 2026-10-25, CC BY-SA 3.0
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-25, CC BY-SA
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-25, CC BY-SA
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-25, CC BY-SA
- 3D model: Searsia lancea (built for Vanagrha) by Vanagrha, own
A fact “checked by a majority of its sources” was settled by a vote of the pages it was read from, not by a person reading it; one marked “one source” rests on that page alone. Anything else not marked checked has not been checked yet. Where nothing is known, the page says so rather than guess.