Growth Form: Small tree to 35 feet tall; trunk diameter up to 6 inches; crown widely spreading.
Bark: Dark brown, roughened.
Twigs: Rather stout, gray-brown to reddish-brown, sometimes hairy, with conspicuous red lenticels; leaf scars alternate, U-shaped, elevated with 6-9 bundle traces.
Buds: More or less rounded, rusty-hairy, about ⅛ inch long.
Leaves: Alternate, pinnately compound, with as many as 21 leaflets; leaflets oblong to elliptic, up to 3 inches long and 1 inch broad, sharp pointed at the apex, tapering or rounded at the sometimes asymmetrical base, smooth or with low teeth along the edges, dark green, smooth and shiny on the upper surface, paler and hairy on the lower surface, all leaflets attached to a winged stalk. The leaves turn a deep red or wine color in the autumn.
Flowers: Staminate and pistillate sometimes borne on separate plants, sometimes on the same plant, sometimes in the same flower, numerous in much branched clusters, appearing from late May to mid-August, each flower greenish-yellow, small.
Fruit: Cluster of red berries, each berry round, finely hairy, up to ⅛ inch in diameter, containing a single orange seed.
Wood: Light in weight, soft, coarse-grained, pale brown.
Use: Sometimes grown as an ornamental.
Habitat: Dry hills, fields.