''Smodingium argutum'', the African poison ivy or pain bush, is a southern African shrub or medium-sized tree in the

Anacardiaceae The Anacardiaceae, commonly known as the cashew family or sumac family, are a family of flowering plants, including about 83 genera with about 860 known species. Members of the Anacardiaceae bear fruits that are drupes and in some cases produce ...

, which has properties comparable to the American poison ivy, as its sap contains heptadecyl catechols that are toxic to the skin. An immuno-chemical reaction is suspected as in other toxic anacardiaceous species. It is monotypic in the genus ''Smodingium'', and was discovered in

Pondoland Pondoland or Mpondoland (Mpondo: ''EmaMpondweni''), is a natural region on the South African shores of the Indian Ocean. It is located in the coastal belt of the Eastern Cape province. Its territory is the former Mpondo Kingdom of the Mpondo peopl ...

by J. F. Drège during an 1832 expedition with the zoologist Andrew Smith.

Description

It resembles ''

Rhus Sumac or sumach ( , )—not to be confused with poison sumac—is any of the roughly 35 species of flowering plants in the genus ''Rhus'' (and related genera) of the cashew and mango tree family, Anacardiaceae. However, it is '' Rhus coriaria' ...

'' species in habit and foliage. It is very variable in size, sometimes a woody shrub barely 1–2 feet high, or otherwise a tree of up to 6m. During summer it produces small, creamy green flowers arranged in large sprays. The Greek generic name, meaning "durated mark", alludes to its hard, flattened seeds, which are fitted with papery wings. The margins of the alternately arranged, trifoliolate leaves are toothed, as suggested by its specific name, ''argutum'', which means "sharp". The foliage assumes attractive autumn colours. When damaged the twigs exude a creamy, poisonous sap, which turns black when the catechols contained in it polymerize to a melanin.

Range

It occurs along the

Mpumalanga Mpumalanga () is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. The name means "East", or literally "The Place Where the Sun Rises" in the Nguni languages. Mpumalanga lies in eastern South Africa, bordering Eswatini and Mozambique. It shares bor ...

escarpment, the uplands of

Eswatini Eswatini, formally the Kingdom of Eswatini, also known by its former official names Swaziland and the Kingdom of Swaziland, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. It is bordered by South Africa on all sides except the northeast, where i ...

, the

KwaZulu-Natal midlands The KwaZulu-Natal midlands is an inland area of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa that starts from Pietermaritzburg and ends before the Drakensberg mountain range; between Pietermaritzburg, Estcourt and Greytown. Area The largest city in the midla ...

and

Transkei Transkei ( , meaning ''the area beyond Great Kei River,

he river The He River is a tributary of the Xi River in Guangxi and Guangdong provinces in China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it ...

Kei''), officially the Republic of Transkei (), was an list of historical unrecognized states and dependencies, unrecognised state in the southeastern region of South Africa f ...

, southern

Lesotho Lesotho, formally the Kingdom of Lesotho and formerly known as Basutoland, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Entirely surrounded by South Africa, it is the largest of only three sovereign enclave and exclave, enclaves in the world, t ...

and the southern Free State.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q18084188 Trees of South Africa Ornamental trees Monotypic Sapindales genera Anacardiaceae Anacardiaceae genera Flora of the Cape Provinces Flora of KwaZulu-Natal Flora of the Northern Provinces Plants described in 1860