Pistacia chinensis Bunge

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Credits

Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles

Recommended citation
'Pistacia chinensis' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/pistacia/pistacia-chinensis/). Accessed 2024-03-29.

Glossary

glabrous
Lacking hairs smooth. glabrescent Becoming hairless.
inflorescence
Flower-bearing part of a plant; arrangement of flowers on the floral axis.
lanceolate
Lance-shaped; broadest in middle tapering to point.
lax
Loose or open.
midrib
midveinCentral and principal vein in a leaf.
ovate
Egg-shaped; broadest towards the stem.
panicle
A much-branched inflorescence. paniculate Having the form of a panicle.
imparipinnate
Odd-pinnate; (of a compound leaf) with a central rachis and an uneven number of leaflets due to the presence of a terminal leaflet. (Cf. paripinnate.)

References

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Credits

Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles

Recommended citation
'Pistacia chinensis' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/pistacia/pistacia-chinensis/). Accessed 2024-03-29.

A large deciduous tree up to 80 ft high in Central China. Leaves evenly pinnate, about 9 in. long, composed of usually ten or twelve leaflets, generally but not invariably without the terminal odd one. Leaflets ovate-lanceolate, long-pointed, unequally divided by the midrib, 212 to 312 in. long, 34 in. wide, glabrous except when quite young. Flowers in a cluster of panicles near the end of the shoot, the male flowers crowded on an inflorescence 3 in. long, the female ones on a much more open, lax panicle 7 to 9 in. long. Fruit the size of large peppercorns, first red, then blue.

Native of Central and W. China, where the young shoots and leaves are eaten cooked as a vegetable by the Chinese. This is undoubtedly the best of the pistacias to cultivate in England. It was originally introduced to Kew by means of seed in 1897, and is apparently perfectly hardy, never having suffered in the least from cold up to now, although quite unprotected. It has no beauty of flower, but the foliage is of a glossy, cheerful green, and Mr Wilson (who sent home seeds during his 1908 and 1910 journeys in China) told me that it turns a gorgeous crimson before falling in autumn, rendering a large tree one of the most glorious pictures conceivable.