lacquer to make Chinese, Japanese, and Korean lacquerware.

The trees grow up to 20 metres tall with large leaves, each containing from 7 to 19 leaflets (most often 11-13). The sap contains the allergenic compound urushiol, which gets its name from this species' Japanese name urushi ; "urushi" is also used in English as a collective term for all kinds of Asian lacquerware made from the sap