Pistacia lentiscus L.
Eng.: Mastic tree, lentisk. Spa.: Lentisco, charneca. Fre.: Lentisque, pistachier lentisque. Ara: Deru, dirua, dhorru, dru, (Egypt): fustuq sharqi. Tam.: tidekst, tadist, tadis, imidek, fethies, fadhiss, itk, tikht, tiddakt, tagant, qwawach; the fruit: gueddaïn, gudhim, gudhum.
Shrub or small tree, dioecious, up to 6-8 m in height, that sometimes becomes arboreal with well defined trunk in forest environments. Usually it is a very ramose hemispherical shrub, with stems and old branches tortuous, with greyish-brown to blackish bark. Young branchlets greenish or often reddish. Leaves alternate, composed, paripinnate, with 2-14 opposite or subopposite leaflets 1-5 × 0.5-2.4 cm, from oblong-lanceolate to elliptical, mucronate, with entire margin, coriaceous, glabrous, deep green on the upper side and slightly lighter on the underside. Rachis clearly winged, with green wings of the same texture and colour as the leaves. Inflorescence spiciform, dense, axillary. Flowers very small, unisexual, with bracteoles similar to the sepals, reddish. Male flowers with 1 bract and 5-6 small bracteoles, 5 stamens with purple anthers. Female flowers with 1 bract and 4-5 bracteoles, ovary with a short style ending in 3 stigmas. Fruit a globose drupe up to 5 mm, with smooth and shiny surface, red at first, blackish-brown when mature, although sterile fruits remain red.
Flowering:
March to May.
Fruiting:
September to November.
Habitat:
Thermophilic forests and thickets, on any type of soil. In semiarid to subhumid bioclimate, on inframediterranean and thermomediterranean floors. In more arid areas it may take refuge in deep valleys. This species does not withstand heavy frosts, so it becomes rarer inland. It is often the dominant species in thickets formed from the degradation of sclerophyllous forests.
Distribution:
Mediterranean region and Canary Islands. In North Africa it is a common species in the Mediterranean area below 1,600 m. It is largely absent in the steppic plateaux, an area of extreme continentality. However, it reappears in the Saharan Atlas. Its southernmost limit of distribution is the foothills of sublittoral western Anti-Atlas, near Ifni. Towards the E, as the climate becomes more arid, its range becomes smaller, reaching NW Egypt to S of Sollum.
Observations:
P. aethiopica Kokwaro (P. lentiscus var. emarginata Engl.) is a species closely related to P. lentiscus, widespread in neighbouring countries S and E of Sudan (Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya and Eritrea); therefore its presence in the N of Sudan cannot be ruled out.
The resin or turpentine (both with numerous applications) has been extracted from the mastic tree and the other species of the genus treated here. The fruits are used for cattle feed and contain large quantities of oil, suitable especially for lighting (although now in disuse).
Conservation status:
Common and widespread species. In the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, it is listed as Least Concern (LC) at global level (Rhodes & Maxted, 2016).