Pistacia terebinthus

The turpentine tree is a member of the cashew or Anacardiaceae family. It is a small to medium-sized deciduous tree native to Iran and the Mediterranean region from the western regions of Morocco and Portugal to Greece, western and southeast Turkey. It can grow up to 10 m tall.

• Leaves are bright green, leathery, compound, 10–20 cm long, paripinnate (no terminal leaflet), with 5–11 opposite glossy oval leaflets, the leaflets 2–6 cm long and 1–3 cm broad.
• The tree is dioecious (i.e. males and females are on separate trees); flowers are reddish-purple to green, appearing with the new leaves in early spring.
• Fruit is a small, globular drupe 5–7 mm long (the size of a pea), red to black when ripe.
• All parts of the plant have a strong resinous smell.
• P. terebinthus is related to P. lentiscus, with which it hybridizes frequently in contact zones.They are generally larger and rounder than the leaves of the mastic and the mastic has winged stalks to its leaflets (flattened side fins). On the west coast of the Mediterranean, Canary Islands and Middle East, P. terebinthus can be confused with P. atlantica