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Pistacia
Also called Pistachio, Pistache, Pistachio, Pistaches
Pistacia is a genus of 10 to 20 shrubs and small trees in the cashew family, including the pistachio (P. vera) and the ornamental Chinese pistache (P. chinensis). The key to growing them is hot, dry, sunny conditions with well-drained soil, as they are highly drought tolerant but dislike humidity.
Pistacia is a genus of flowering plants in the cashew family, Anacardiaceae. It contains 10 to 20 species that are native to Africa and Eurasia from the Canary Islands, all of Africa, and southern Europe, warm and semidesert areas across Asia, and North America from Guatemala to Mexico, as well as southern Texas.
Best known as the pistachio, P. vera is a small tree native to Iran, grown for its edible seeds. The seeds of the other species were also eaten in prehistory, but are too small to have commercial value today. Records of Pistacia from preclassical archaeological sites, and mentions in preclassical texts, always refer to one of these other species (often P. terebinthus).
P. terebinthus (the terebinth), also a native of Iran, and the western Mediterranean countries, is tapped for turpentine. It is also common in the eastern Mediterranean countries. Because terebinths have the ability to kill certain bacteria, terebinth resin was widely used as a preservative in ancient wine. In the Zagros Mountains of Iran, in one of the earliest examples of winemaking, archaeologists discovered terebinth resin deposits from 5400 to 5000 BC in jars that also contained grape-juice residue.
The Pistacia species are vicarious Anacardiaceae with few species outside the Old World, and are mostly more adapted to water shortage and alkaline soil.
Mt. Atlas mastic tree · Chinese pistache · Chinese Pistache · Mastic tree · Terebinth · Pistachio
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Pistacia by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
