Pronounciation: Pis-TA-cee-a chi-NEN-sis

Hardiness zones
Sunset 4-11, 12-15, 18-23
USDA 7-11

Landscape Use: Chinese pistache is a mesic shade tree for large residential and commercial landscapes, sometimes used as a lawn tree, fall color.

Form & Character: Umbrella top, coarse branch architecture, canopy outline is oval to rounded, mesic, wonderful color accent especially during the late fall and early winter.

Growth Habit: Deciduous, woody, perennial broadleaf tree, moderately slow when young to moderate with age eventually reaching 30- to 40-feet tall with a canopy spread of 30- to 50-feet wide; under good conditions might grow to 50-feet tall with a 70-feet spread.

Foliage/Texture: Alternate, compound even pinnate, about 10-inches long, 10 to 12 pairs of leaflets, each leaflet 2- to 4-inches long, 3/4-inch wide, terminal leaflets the shortest, lanceolate, short-stalked, acute or acuminate, mucronate to cuspidate, oblique, entire, glabrous at maturity, lustrous dark green; petiole is 1- to 4-inches long, fall and early winter foliage turns scarlet to sometimes yellow, foliage reappears in April; medium coarse texture.

Flowers & Fruits: Dioecious, flowers in winter when deciduous, male flowers in compound 2 to 3 panicles, females flowers in 7 to 9 panicles, both greenish not showy; fruit on female tree a globose drupe turns bright red then blue in winter and early spring, loved by birds.

Seasonal Color: Yellow to scarlet red late fall color of leaves, one of most dependable in urban desert cities.

Temperature: Tolerant

Light: Full sun

Soil: Well-drained, deep, fertile soils are best, avoid sites with shallow soils and caliche.

Watering: Apply regular, deep supplemental water.

Pruning: Elevate canopy base slowly over time to desired height.

Propagation: Semi-softwood stem cuttings, grafting (beware of graft incompatibilities).

Disease and Pests: Verticillium wilt is rare, phytophthora root rot is not. Resistant to chestnut blight.

Additional comments: Arguably Chinese pistache has the finest fall color of any landscape tree taxon in Phoenix. It typically shows fall leaf color from late November through early January, with new leaves emerging in late March to early April. It also casts a rather dense shade. In summary, I think Chinese pistache is a wonderful, broad-canopied deciduous tree with exquisite trunk bark characteristics, dense summer shade, and resounding fall color.

The are several cultivars and hybrids with subtle unique accent features. Pistacia chinensis 'Sarah's Radiance', a wonderful shade tree with vibrant orange to scarlet red fall color. It is a grafted selection whose rootstock is Pistacia x 'Red Push', which is a hybrid selection between Pistacia atlantica and Pistacia integerrima and is a wonderful fast-growing shade tree in its own right.

For those with curious minds: Pistacia atlantica and Pistacia lentiscus (small, evergreen dense canopy) are two other plant taxa that are much deserving of landscape use in the Phoenix area.