Pistacia lentiscus is a highly aromatic amber resin with recognised antiseptic properties

Pistacia lentiscus also known as mastic tree or lentisk.

The Pistacia lentiscus, also known as the Pistachio mastic, is a beautiful evergreen shrub that is somewhat dark and polymorphous, punctuating the landscapes around the Mediterranean with its dense, dark mass. 

It never really strays far from the sea, which provides its young plants with the mild winter climate they need to grow into solid dryland specimens. Once well established, neither poor, arid or, on the contrary, asphyxiating soil, nor the slap of the wind, nor the scorch of the sun, not even the thick shade of holm oaks or pines will overcome its quiet strength. 

This singular personality shines through in its bushy habit, its small foliage cut into tough, dark green leaflets, and the powerful, herbaceous, balsamic scent of the amber resin that its bark hides like a treasure. The mastic is appreciated for its authenticity and what it embodies for all eternity: a reliable shrub, reaching a venerable age, indispensable for creating the evergreen structure of the garden in a mild climate.

Pistacia lentiscus is a shrub in the Anacardiaceae family, native to the Mediterranean basin, from North Africa to Mediterranean Europe, and as far south as Palestine. In France, it is found in Corsica, but also along a wide strip of the Mediterranean coast, as far south as Charente-Maritime. 

In the wild, it grows on rocky slopes, deeply rooted in the poor soils of the garrigues and maquis, but also in evergreen forests in dry climates with mild winters. It grows to an average height of 2m and a spread of 3m, with a bushy, rounded, spreading, highly branched, stocky growth habit. 

Depending on the conditions in which it grows, whether exposed to the wind or sheltered, it can form a large ground cover or a tall shrub over 3m high. Its foliage is divided into an even number of small, oval, leathery leaflets, no more than 3cm long and 1.5cm wide. The young leaves are light green in spring, darkening in summer and taking on a lovely purplish or bronze hue in winter as a result of the cold. 

Flowering, from March to May, is fairly insignificant and green. This is followed, on female plants pollinated by a male plant, by numerous small red edible fruits, grouped in quite decorative bunches, which turn black when ripe. The fresh seeds, harvested in winter, germinate fairly easily in spring.