Mastic Tree

Description:

This is a shrub or tree dioecious, separate male and female plants, evergreen from 1 to 5 m high, with a strong smell of resin. It is a very typical species that grows in Mediterranean mixed communities of myrtle, Kermes oak, Mediterranean dwarf Palm, buckthorn, sarsaparilla... and serves as protection and food for birds and other fauna in this ecosystem. It is a very hardy pioneer species dispersed by birds and abundant in dry Mediterranean. Grows as a bush and when older, it develops some large trunks and numerous branches thicker and longer. In appropriate areas, when allowed to grow freely and gets old, often becomes a tree up to 7 m. The leafs are alternate, leathery and compound paripinnate (no terminal leaflet) with 3 or 6 deep green leaflets. Presents very small flowers, the male with 5 stamens, the female trifid style. The fruit is a drupe, first red and then black when ripe, about 4 mm in diameter.

Habitat:

Native throughout the Mediterranean region, from Morocco and 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. Grows on all types of soils and can grow well in limestone areas and even salty or saline, this makes it more abundant near the sea. It lives in woodlands, dehesas (almost deforested pasture areas), kermes oak wood, oaks wood, garrigue, maquis, hills, gorges, canyons and rocky hillsides of the entire Mediterranean area.

Notes:

Aroeira, Lentisco (Portuguese)