Mastic bush
Mastic bush | ||||||||||||
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Mastic bush ( Pistacia lentiscus ) |
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Systematics | ||||||||||||
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Scientific name | ||||||||||||
Pistacia lentiscus | ||||||||||||
L. |
The mastic bush ( Pistacia lentiscus ), also known as the wild pistachio , like the real pistachio , belongs to the sumac family (Anacardiaceae).
description
The mastic shrub grows as a shrub , less often as a small tree , and reaches heights of 1 to 3 meters, rarely up to 8 meters.
The evergreen and stalked leaves are pinnate in pairs, with 8 to 12 individual, seated, leathery and bare leaves up to about 5 centimeters long. The egg-shaped, -lanceolate to obovate, -eilanceolate leaflets have entire margins and round-pointed as well as prickly-pointed. The leaf spindle is winged short.
The mastic shrub is dioecious dioecious . The small flowers with a simple flower envelope , the petals are missing, and very small 3–5-part perianth are each in a short inflorescence, with a thick rhachis, in the leaf axils. The short-stalked, greenish male flowers, with a small bract , in dense clusters , have up to 5 almost sessile stamens with conspicuous, large and dark red anthers and a small pestle. The sessile to short-stalked female flowers, some with a bract, are greenish with an upper, single-chamber ovary with 2–4 spreading, red and feathery stigma . They stand in loose racemose- like inflorescences.
The approximately 4 mm large and round, single-seeded stone fruits with small remnants of stigmas and perianth are initially red, later black.
The flowering period extends from March to June.
The number of chromosomes is 2n = 30.
distribution
The plant is native to the Mediterranean area and the Canary Islands and is a typical representative of the scrub vegetation .
use
Above all, the dried resin from the bushes, the so-called mastic, is used . The shrubs have many resin containers under the bark, from which the resin leaks after scratching . Leafy branches are used in flower-making as green accessories in bouquets. The resin is also used in the manufacture of confectionery, u. a. used by sweets such as "Mastic Balls".
photos
literature
- Dankwart Seidel: Flowers on the Mediterranean. Determine accurately with the 3-check . BLV, Munich 2002, ISBN 3-405-16294-7 .
- Peter Schönfelder, Ingrid Schönfelder: What is in bloom in the Mediterranean? 750 species (= Kosmos nature guide ). 4th edition. Franckh-Kosmos, Stuttgart 2005, ISBN 3-440-10211-4 .
- John Stephenson, James Morss Churchill: Medical Botany. Vol. III, Churchill, 1831, CXXX, Pl. 130.
- OC Berg , CF Schmidt: Presentation and description of all in the Pharmacopaea ... Volume 3, XXVII f., Förstner, 1861, limited preview in the Google book search.
- Jill Norman: Herb and Spices. Dorling Kindersley, 2015, ISBN 978-0-241-42925-9 , p. 208.
Web links
- Pistacia lentiscus at Useful Temperate Plants.
- Mastic shrub on wildfind.com, accessed November 6, 2016.
- Flora of the Peloponnese, Greece at homepage Armin Jagel (pictures).
- Mastic shrub at arboriculture.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Pistacia lentiscus at Tropicos.org. In: IPCN Chromosome Reports . Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis.