Nutgall tree
Rhus chinensis · Anacardiaceae · 붉나무
How to spot it
Odd-pinnately compound leaves with a winged rachis (leaf axis), and galls (oebaeja) made by the gall aphid.
Look
- Leaves
- Leaves are alternate and odd-pinnately compound, with 7-13 egg-shaped leaflets 5-12 cm long. The underside and leaf stalk are densely brown-hairy, the margins have sparse teeth, and the rachis is winged.
- Flowers
- From late July to early September, milky-white flowers bloom in panicles 15-30 cm long at the branch tips, with five sepals, five petals and five stamens.
- Fruit
- The fruit is a flattened-round drupe 4 mm across, densely covered with short yellow-brown hairs. It is orange-red, tastes sour and salty, and matures from late August to late November.
Where it grows
- In Korea
- Native
- Native to
- Found across Southeast Asia including China, Taiwan, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Laos, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, and in Japan and throughout Korea.
- Ecology
- Grows in mountains and fields. The gall aphid parasitizes it and makes the galls (oebaeja).