Pistacia lentiscus

The mastic tree is a member of the cashew or Anacardiaceae family, and is native throughout the Mediterranean region, from Morocco and the Iberian peninsula in the west through southern France and Turkey to Iraq and Iran in the east. It is also native to the Canary Islands. It can reach up to 5 m tall, and has a strong smell of resin.

• Leaves are alternate, leathery, and compound paripinnate (no terminal leaflet), 20–25 cm long, with 10–12 leaflets.
• The plant is dioecious; flowers are very small, with 5 stamens, produced in panicles 5–10 cm long at the ends of branches.
• Fruit is a small, red drupe, turning blue when ripe and containing a single seed 4 mm in diameter.
• The plant has an aromatic, ivory-coloured resin, also known as mastic, harvested as a spice from cultivated mastic trees on the Greek island of Chios in the Aegean Sea.