Anacardiaceae
Trees or shrubs, often with resinous bark and sap turning black upon exposure. Lvs usually alternate, rarely opposite, simple or compound, nearly always exstipulate. Fls small, in axillary or terminal panicles, ⚥ or unisexual, usually regular. Calyx 3-7-lobed, sometimes deeply so. Petals 3-7 or 0, usually free, occasionally connate. Disc ± annular. Stamens usually twice as many as petals, inserted on disc margin. Ovary superior, 1-(5)-locular; placentation basal or apical; ovule 1, pendulous; styles free and often widely separated. Fr. usually a drupe, sometimes an achene. Seed non-endospermic or with a very thin endosperm.
c. 60 genera, 600 spp., mainly tropical and subtropical, but a number in temperate E. Asia and E. North America.
Allan (1961) treated monotypic Plectomirtha W. Oliver in the Anacardiaceae. P. baylisiana is now transferred to Pennantia in the Icacinaceae (Sleumer, H., Blumea 18 : 217-218 (1970)). Several spp. of Rhus L., the 2 spp. of Cotinus Adans., a sp. of Pistacia L., and 2 spp. of Schinus L. are commonly cultivated. The family is notorious for the poisonous sap which is a strong skin irritant, but of the commoner spp. in N.Z. apparently only Rhus succedanea L., Japanese wax tree, is poisonous.
