Species
+

Pistacia vera L.

Echte Pistazie (DE); Pistachio (EN), Pistachio, Pistachio Nut, Pistachio Nuts

Climate known 70 photographs
Add one to my plants Sow seed

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

The pistachio is a small to medium-sized tree of the cashew family. The tree produces seeds that are widely consumed as food. Pistachios can be used as an ingredient in desserts, chocolate, candy, ice cream, and as a paste or butter. As a tree nut, pistachios are considered a priority allergen that may induce allergic reactions in susceptible people.

Text from Wikipedia, “Pistachio”, 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.

Family
Anacardiaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Kazakhstan, Kirgizistan, Turkmenistan +4
Wild records
186 in range· 98 open

At a glance

Warmest month
32°C
Jul, mean day; nights 18 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
414mm/yr
7 wet months · peak Mar 72 mm (CHELSA)
Light
14–48DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: a winter growing season, December to May in the northern hemisphere (December to May at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 414 mm a year, wettest March at 72 mm, driest August at 3 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 14 to 48 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -7.9 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Lentiscus vera (L.) Kuntze; Pistacia badghysi K.P.Popov; Pistacia macrophylla Pers.; Pistacia narbonnensis L.; Pistacia narbonnensis var. bauhini Ten. and 10 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a winter growing season, December to May in the northern hemisphere (December to May 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 (336 mm of 414 mm) falls in December to May, cooler than the year (wet-season mean 7.1 °C against a yearly mean of 13.0 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: June to November.

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 414 mm a year, wettest March at 72 mm, driest August at 3 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

414 mm a year at the habitat, 336 mm of it December to May. Wettest month March at 72 mm, driest August at 3 mm; 2 months under 5 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 170 mm to 714 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: 14 to 48 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 14 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 11, 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 -7.9 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -7.9 °C, the absolute minimum -15.7 °C, about 60 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 41.6 °C. Monthly means: coldest night -5.4 °C in January (across the envelope cells -9.2 °C to -1.2 °C), warmest day 31.8 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -7.9 °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.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 44 to 56% 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

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 5 °C in Jan to 32 °C in Jul; mean night from -5 °C in Jan to 18 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 414 mm of rain a year, most in Mar. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 127 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -15.7 °C and the 99th-percentile day 41.6 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-20°-10°10°20°30°40°50°frost41.6° 99th-percentile day (undated)-15.7° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100125150mm rainDLI 14–48RH 44–56 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 127 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C5 / 0–96 / 2–1112 / 7–1619 / 14–2324 / 19–2930 / 24–3532 / 26–3631 / 25–3526 / 21–3119 / 15–2413 / 8–177 / 2–11
Night °C-5 / -9–-1-4 / -7–01 / -3–57 / 3–1011 / 7–1516 / 12–2018 / 14–2318 / 13–2213 / 9–177 / 3–112 / -2–6-3 / -7–1
Rain mm47 / 26–8558 / 23–9472 / 32–12663 / 21–11248 / 11–8312 / 1–336 / 1–213 / 0–124 / 1–1519 / 4–4634 / 11–6948 / 22–88
DLI16 / 13–2122 / 19–2828 / 25–3537 / 34–4242 / 41–4748 / 45–5148 / 45–5044 / 42–4736 / 34–4026 / 23–3118 / 14–2314 / 11–19
RH %56 / 51–5956 / 51–5856 / 49–5854 / 45–5651 / 41–5445 / 38–5144 / 37–5044 / 37–4945 / 40–5050 / 44–5353 / 48–5655 / 50–59

Each figure is the median across the 127 grid cells holding the 172 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 978:5048 (41.075, 72.425). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -15.7 °C, 1st-percentile night -7.9 °C, 99th-percentile day 41.6 °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 127 distinct grid cells holding the 172 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 978:5048 (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 41.00_72.500, lapse-corrected -134 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 799 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeKazakhstan, Kirgizistan, Turkmenistan, Tadzhikistan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Iran· introduced: France, Spain, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Libya, Morocco, East Aegean Is., Lebanon-Syria, Turkey
Kew's description“tree” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker38.1, 68.26 · in the densest population, 54 records (29% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 186 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 98 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 228 km away. 1099 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 14 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 186 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

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Photographs: (c) Linzy L., some rights reserved (CC BY-SA); (c) Кирилл, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) yelena_antipova, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) Kristof Zyskowski, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Cody Hinchliff, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2).

Photographs: iNaturalist 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 vera, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Response surface modeling of Pb(II) removal from aqueous solution by Pistacia vera L.: Box–Behnken experimental design
Kaan Yetilmezsoy, Sevgi Demirel, Robert J. Vanderbei (2009) · Journal of Hazardous Materials
Phytosterol Composition of Nuts and Seeds Commonly Consumed in the United States
Katherine M. Phillips, David M. Ruggio, M. Ashraf‐Khorassani (2005) · Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry
Antioxidant activity and phenolic profile of pistachio (Pistacia vera L., variety Bronte) seeds and skins
Antonio Tomaino, Maria Martorana, Teresita Arcoraci, Domenico Monteleone (2010) · Biochimie
Tolerance of Mycorrhiza infected Pistachio (Pistacia vera L.) seedling to drought stress under glasshouse conditions
Hossein Abbaspour, Sakineh Saeidi-Sar, H Afshari, Mosaad A. Abdel‐Wahhab (2012) · Journal of Plant Physiology
A Systematic Review of the Potential Herbal Sources of Future Drugs Effective in Oxidant-Related Diseases
Shirin Hasani‐Ranjbar, Bagher Larijani, Mohammad Abdollahı (2009) · Inflammation & Allergy - Drug Targets
Identification of a RAPD marker linked to sex determination in Pistacia vera using bulked segregant analysis
J.I. Hormaza, L. Dollo, Vito S. Polito (1994) · Theoretical and Applied Genetics
Some physical properties of Pistachio (Pistacia vera L.) nut and its kernel
Mahdi Kashaninejad, Ali Mortazavi, Ali Akbar Safekordi, Lope G. Tabil (2005) · Journal of Food Engineering
Deficit irrigation and emerging fruit crops as a strategy to save water in Mediterranean semiarid agrosystems
A. Galindo, Jacinta Collado‐González, I. Griñán, Mireia Corell (2017) · Agricultural Water Management
Evaluation of the nutraceutical, antioxidant and cytoprotective properties of ripe pistachio ( Pistacia vera L., variety Bronte) hulls
Davide Barreca, Giuseppina Laganà, Ugo Leuzzi, Antonella Smeriglio (2015) · Food Chemistry

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.

Other 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 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 71 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.