DISTRIBUTION AND OCCURRENCE
SPECIES: Malosma laurina | Laurel Sumac 



GENERAL DISTRIBUTION : 
Laurel sumac is distributed along the Pacific Coast from the Point
Conception region of Santa Barbara County, California, south to La Paz,
Baja California Sur [35,40].  It also occurs on Santa Catalina, San
Clemente, Cedros, and Guadelupe islands [12].


ECOSYSTEMS : 
   FRES28  Western hardwoods
   FRES34  Chaparral - mountain shrub


STATES : 
     CA  MEXICO


ADMINISTRATIVE UNITS : 
     CABR  SAMO


BLM PHYSIOGRAPHIC REGIONS : 
    3  Southern Pacific Border


KUCHLER PLANT ASSOCIATIONS : 
   K030  California oakwoods
   K035  Coastal sagebrush
   K037  Mountain-mahogany - oak scrub


SAF COVER TYPES : 
   255  California coast live oak


SRM (RANGELAND) COVER TYPES : 
NO-ENTRY


HABITAT TYPES AND PLANT COMMUNITIES : 
Laurel sumac occurs in coastal sage scrub, chaparral, and hardwood
woodland formations [4,8].  It occasionally grows in nearly pure stands
in coastal sage scrub [18,40].  More commonly, it codominates with
California sagebrush (Artemisia californica) and black, white, or purple
sage (Salvia mellifera, S. apiana, S. leucophylla), or is a less
important community memeber [28,59].  Other coastal sage scrub
associates are toyon (Hetermoles arbutifolia), sugar bush (Rhus ovata),
lemonadeberry (R. integrifolia), misson manzanita (Xylococcus bicolor),
needlegrasses (Stipa spp.), perennial ryegrass (Lolium perrenne), and
giant wildrye (Elymus condensatus) [29,34,35,49].

In mixed chaparral, it often codominates with bigpod ceanothus
(Ceanothus megacarpus) and spiny ceanothus (C. spinosus) [50].  It is
usually an associate in desert scrub and seral chamise (Ademostoma
fasciculatum) communities [10,19].  Desert scrub associates include
desert ceanothus (C. gregii), desert almond (Prunus fasciculata), bush
poppy (Denromecon rigida), and flannelbush (Fremontodendron
californicum) [18,21].  Besides chamise, common chamise chaparral
associates include hoaryleaf ceanothus (C. crassifolius), hairy
ceanothus (C. obliganthus), California scrub oak (Quercus dumosa),
Eastwood manzanita (Arctostaphylos glandulosa), and bigberry manzanita
(A. glauca) [11,21,22].
 
In woodlands, laurel sumac is an understory associate in Engelmann oak
(Quercus emgelmannii), valley oak (Q. lobata), coast live oak (Q.
agrifolia), and California black walnut (Juglans californica)
[33,42,52,62,66].  Riparian associates include California bay
(Umbellularia californica), hollyleaf cherry (Prunus ilicifolia),
poison-oak (Toxicodendron diversilobum), and toyon [11,41].  It is also
found in riparian California sycamore (Platanus racemosa)-white alder
(Alnus rhombifolia) associations bordering chaparral [18].

Common fire-follower associates are deerweed (Lotus scparius), sticky
nama (Nama parryi), and bush lupine (Lupinus longifolius) [14].


Publications listing laurel sumac as a codominant species are as
follows:

The community composition of California coastal sage scrub [28]
A vegetation classification system applied to southern California [40]

Related categories for Species: Malosma laurina | Laurel Sumac