Plant · P-565

Pistachio

Pistacia vera

Pistachio is the only species in its genus grown for a nut, and it needs a male tree standing near every group of females to set a crop at all - the male itself bears nothing. It thrives on long, hot, dry summers and light, even calcareous soil, but humid air brings on the leaf and nut diseases that push it out of most wetter climates. A tree takes 7 to 10 years to bear its first nuts and doesn't peak until 15 to 20. The hulls have to come off promptly at harvest, or the nuts left inside them stain.