Anacardiaceae

Pistacia chinensis

Chinese pistache

Look for: 
- a deciduous tree with bright fall color,

- flaky bark
- even-pinnately compound leaves,
- large clusters of red and blue fruits (if the tree is female).

Anacardiaceae

Rhus integrifolia

Lemonade berry

Look for: 
- an evergreen, woody shrub,
- alternate, simple, oval leaves with margins that can be entire to toothed,
- leaf veins that bulge out above and below a leathery surface,
- branches that are gray to white.

Anacardiaceae

Rhus lancea

African sumac

Look for: 
- a medium-sized, evergreen tree with bending trunk and branches,
- palmately compound leaves (usually trifoliate),
- narrowly elliptic dark green leaflets with pale midveins,
- small flowers in clusters that look like puffs of green smoke,
- reddish-brown bark.

Asteraceae

Artemisia spp.

Sagebrush, Wormwood

Look for: 
- A nondescript herbaceous-to-woody shrubby perennial,
- leaves often deeply lobed with white pubescence.

- pale green to a yellowish color

- glandular dotted

Asteraceae

Baccharis pilularis

Dwarf coyote brush

Look for: 
- Evergreen shrub with small, variable leaves,
- light green, glandular foliage covered with resin dots,
- oblanceolate to obovate leaf shape,
- entire to toothed leaf margin,
- litte or no petiole on each leaf.

Asteraceae

Euryops pectinatus

Golden shrub daisy

Look for: 
- a mounding evergreen shrub,
- bright yellow composite flowers (with ray and disc florets),
- waxy, dark green foliage,
- distinctive comb-shaped leaves with narrow lobes.

Buxaceae

Buxus microphylla

Littleleaf Boxwood

Look for:
- a dense shrub up to 1m high, 
- grooved, quadrangular stems, 
- small, opposite leaves with smooth margins, 
- rounded or notched leaf tips.

Celastraceae

Euonymus japonicus

Evergreen euonymus

Look for: 
- An evergreen shrub,
- foliage that often has some variegation,
- waxy leaves that are anywhere from opposite to alternate. 
- small black dots between rounded teeth in the leaf margin.

- powdery mildew

Celastraceae

Euonymus japonicus 'Microphyllus'

Boxleaf euonymus

Look for:
- An evergreen shrub,
- foliage that often has some variegation,
- waxy leaves that are anywhere from opposite to alternate,
- small black dots between rounded teeth in the leaf margin.

- no powdery mildew 

Celastraceae

Maytenus boaria

Mayten, Chilean mayten

Look for: 

- kind of like willow
- an evergreen tree with long, pendulous branches,
- simple, alternate, elliptic leaves that are held horizontally,
- gray to black bark with deep grooves, 
- tiny flowers that appear in the springtime,
- (some trees) small fruits that open in the fall to show seeds in bright orange arils.

Myrsinaceae

Myrsine africana

African boxwood

Look for: 
- A dense, evergreen shrub,
- small, alternate, round or oval leaves with punctate glands,
- tiny serrations on the leaf margins from the midpoint to the tip, 
- wine-red stems on the new growth.

Oleaceae

Fraxinus spp.

Ash

Look for:
- a deciduous tree, 
- opposite, odd-pinnately-compound leaves with 3 to 9 leaflets, 
- shallow, broad serrations on the leaflet margins, 
- (on female trees) flattened, samaras that "helicopter" down from the tree.

- "alligator" bark

Pittosporaceae

Pittosporum tobira

Tobira

Look for:
- A large shrub with a thick, woody trunk, 
- dark green oblanceolate leaves with white midveins,
- revolute and entire leaf margins, 
- clusters of green fruit that ripen to yellow and then split open in late fall to reveal sticky, orange seeds.

Pittosporaceae

Pittosporum tobira 'Wheeler's Dwarf'

Wheeler's dwarf pittosporum

Look for: 
- Knee-high mounds of dark green foliage,
- oblanceolate leaves with white midveins and entire, revolute margins, 
- no fruit in the fall.

Simaroubaceae

Ailanthus altissima

Tree-of-Heaven

Look for:
- One or more slender gray trunks growing in crowded urban areas,
- graceful, arching, pinnately-compound leaves with 10 to 20 pairs of leaflets, 
- pointed leaflets bearing distinctive basal lobes with black glands on the underside,
- mature bark that is flat, gray, and cracked like old linoleum,
- large clusters of oval samaras on female trees.