Types of Pistachio – Chinese Pistache, Grocery, or Mastic

Choose Chinese pistache, grocery pistachio, or mastic first. One is a shade tree. One is a nut crop. One stays evergreen.

Choose Chinese pistache, grocery pistachio, or mastic first

The first choice is the job you want. Chinese pistache is the medium shade tree with orange-red fall color, ten to twelve narrow leaflets, and inedible pea-size fruit. [1] Grocery pistachio is the edible nut on a separate species. It wants a dry climate, not a long humid summer, and it is not the landscape pistache. [2] Related as they are, Chinese pistache still does not make a grocery kernel. [3] Chios mastic is the evergreen screen with leathery leaflets that stay on through winter. [4] If the tag only says pistachio, read the species line for chinensis, vera, or lentiscus. All three are still Pistacia.

Browse by kind

Match the job you want, then pick that kind. A deciduous shade tree with fall color is Chinese pistache. An edible nut is grocery pistachio. An evergreen screen is mastic. Care for the grocery tree on How to Grow Pistachio. Care for the landscape tree on How to Grow Chinese Pistache.

Chinese pistache

Chinese pistache is the landscape shade tree: thirty to thirty-five feet, ten to twelve leaflets, peeling bark that shows a salmon inner layer, and fiery fall color. Buy it for a street or lawn when you want that color, not a grocery nut. The pea-size fruit is inedible.

Grocery pistachio

pistachio is the grocery nut. Male and female flowers sit on separate trees, so you need a male nearby if you want a crop. It wants a hot, dry summer, not a long humid one. The first nuts take several years.

Chios mastic

Chios mastic is the evergreen: fifteen to twenty-five feet, leathery leaflets, and a screen or small tree if you train a trunk. Buy it for winter foliage, not fall color and not a grocery nut. It stays green where Chinese pistache is bare.

If you want a grocery nut, buy pistachio — Chinese pistache is a shade tree, not the same crop.