I. Friis & K. Vollesen (1999) Anacardiaceae 2: 254-267
Plants shrubs or trees o about 10 m tall; branchlets brownish or greyish, minutely scurfy-pubescent when young. Leaves petiolate and digitately compound with 3 leaflets; petioles 1-4 cm long; leaflets with midribs, lateral veins, and reticulate tertiary venation prominent on the upper surface; leathery, scurfy pubescent at lease when young, lower surfaces much paler than upper, bases cuneate, margins entire. tips rounded to obtuse; middle leaflets 5-9.5 cm long, 3-5 cm wide, up to twice as long as wide; lateral leaflets shorter. Panicles equalling or longer than the leaves, scurfy pubescent with yellowish flowers. Drupes subglobose, about 3.5-4 mm in diamter, red.
Searsia somalensis grows in evergreen bushland or Juniperus forest at 1340-2370 m. It is known from regions N1-N3 of the Flora of Somalia and Oman.