Rhus ovata

Sugar bush, sugar sumac

Family: Anacardiaceae · Type: shrub · Native

Sugar bush is a California native shrub found in southwestern California in chaparral habitats, typically on southern-facing canyon slopes at elevations below 1,300 meters. Flowering from March to May, this plant produces white to pale pink flowers in compact clusters with red-tinged sepals. Growing 2 to 10 meters tall with stout branches, it forms a dense, evergreen shrub with a distinctive growth habit. Its thick, leathery leaves are wide-ovate to elliptical, often folded along the midrib, measuring 3 to 8 centimeters long and wide with acute to acuminate tips. The fruit is a small, glandular-hairy red drupe approximately 6 to 8 millimeters in diameter.

Habitat: Canyons, generally s-facing slopes, chaparral

Bloom period: Mar-May

Elevation: < 1300 m

Bioregions: SW

California counties: Los Angeles, Orange, San Diego, San Bernardino, Imperial, Riverside, Santa Barbara, Ventura, San Francisco, Trinity, Inyo, Butte, Santa Clara, San Benito, Kern, San Luis Obispo, Monterey, Solano, Lassen

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.