Pistacia lentiscus L.
Chios mastictree, Lentisk, Mastic Tree, lentiscus
Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.
Summary
Pistacia lentiscus is a dioecious evergreen shrub or small tree of the genus Pistacia native to the Mediterranean Basin. It grows up to 4 m (13 ft) tall and is cultivated for its aromatic resin, mainly on the Greek island of Chios, around the Turkish town of Çeşme and northern parts of Iraq.
Text from Wikipedia, “Pistacia lentiscus”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.
About the genus · Pistacia
Pistacia is a genus of flowering plants in the cashew family, Anacardiaceae. It contains 10 to 20 species that are native to Africa and Eurasia from the Canary Islands, all of Africa, and southern Europe, warm and semidesert areas across Asia, and North America from Guatemala to Mexico, as well as southern Texas.
Text from Wikipedia, “Pistacia”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.
At a glance
Also known as Pistacia lentiscus f. genuina Rouy; Pistacia lentiscus f. genuina Rouy ex Cout.; Pistacia lentiscus var. genuina Rouy; Pistacia lentiscus var. masslilensis (Mill.) Duhamel; Pistacia masslilensis Mill. and 2 more.
Cultivation
Its year Rain rule: a winter growing season, October to February and April in the northern hemisphere (October to February and April at the habitat, northern).
This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.
The rain rule reads a winter growing season: 70% of the year's rain (477 mm of 633 mm) falls in October to February and April, cooler than the year (wet-season mean 13.3 °C against a yearly mean of 16.9 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: April to August and October.
Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.
Rain Habitat rain 633 mm a year, wettest December at 105 mm, driest July at 4 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
633 mm a year at the habitat, 477 mm of it October to February and April. Wettest month December at 105 mm, driest July at 4 mm; 1 month under 5 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 495 mm to 942 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).
CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.
Light Open sky over the habitat: 13 to 48 mol/m²/day.
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
Open sky over the habitat: 13 to 48 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 10, the highest 90th-percentile month 51).
CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.
Warmth and air Cold floor -0.4 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -0.4 °C, the absolute minimum -4.5 °C, about 5 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 38.6 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 7.0 °C in January (across the envelope cells 2.8 °C to 10.8 °C), warmest day 28.0 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -0.4 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).
NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.
Relative humidity at the habitat: 57 to 60% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.
CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.
The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.
Climate across the habitat
Figures by month
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day °C | 13 / 10–15 | 14 / 11–16 | 16 / 13–19 | 18 / 15–22 | 21 / 19–25 | 25 / 22–30 | 28 / 25–32 | 28 / 25–32 | 25 / 22–30 | 21 / 19–25 | 17 / 14–20 | 14 / 11–17 |
| Night °C | 7 / 3–11 | 7 / 3–11 | 9 / 5–12 | 11 / 8–14 | 14 / 11–17 | 18 / 15–20 | 20 / 17–23 | 20 / 18–24 | 18 / 15–22 | 15 / 12–19 | 11 / 7–15 | 8 / 4–12 |
| Rain mm | 76 / 44–158 | 64 / 38–122 | 51 / 35–83 | 58 / 23–80 | 42 / 8–65 | 15 / 1–44 | 4 / 1–22 | 7 / 1–44 | 37 / 4–87 | 81 / 30–118 | 93 / 59–133 | 105 / 50–161 |
| DLI | 16 / 12–19 | 21 / 18–25 | 31 / 27–33 | 38 / 34–41 | 43 / 40–47 | 48 / 44–50 | 48 / 44–51 | 43 / 38–45 | 34 / 29–38 | 24 / 19–29 | 17 / 13–22 | 13 / 10–17 |
| RH % | 60 / 57–63 | 59 / 57–62 | 58 / 55–61 | 58 / 55–61 | 58 / 54–62 | 57 / 52–63 | 57 / 50–63 | 58 / 51–63 | 59 / 54–63 | 60 / 57–63 | 60 / 56–62 | 60 / 57–64 |
Each figure is the median across the 527 grid cells holding the 799 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1021:3419 (38.925, -9.025). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -4.5 °C, 1st-percentile night -0.4 °C, 99th-percentile day 38.6 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 527 distinct grid cells holding the 799 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1021:3419 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 39.00_-8.750, lapse-corrected +10 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 81 m (cell mean).
Natural habitat
Photographs
Photographs: (c) Duarte Frade, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) John Lyden, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Denis Bastianelli, some rights reserved (CC BY) (4); (c) Eleftherios Katsillis, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) zebedeugalinha, some rights reserved (CC BY).
Photographs: iNaturalist and GBIF media did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.
Papers naming this species
Works whose title or abstract names Pistacia lentiscus, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.
Related
Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.
Ceratonia siliqua Carob
Olea europaea African Olive
Glebionis coronaria Crowndaisy
Colchicum filifolium Colchicaceae
Lavandula dentata French lavender
Cistus salviifolius Sage-leaved Rock-roseOther Pistacia 2 in the reference
History & registers
Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)wcvp.distribution answeredgbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence search APIclimate answeredwikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skippedinat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skippedinat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)gbif.media did not answercarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: api.gbif.org not asked: offline re-derivationopenalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skippedEvery upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 6 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.








