Turpentine tree / Smrdljika

Description:

It is a small deciduous tree (exists as male and female specimens) or large shrub growing to 10 m tall. The leaves are compound, 10 - 20 cm long, odd pinnate with 5 - 11 opposite glossy oval leaflets, the leaflets 2 - 6 cm long and 1 - 3 cm broad. The flowers are reddish-purple, appearing with the new leaves in early spring. The fruit consists of small, globular drupes 5 - 7 mm long, red to black when ripe. All parts of the plant have a strong resinous smell, that is the reason for the Croatian name: Smrdljika.

Habitat:

Native to the Canary Islands, and the Mediterranean region from the western regions of Morocco, and Portugal to Greece and western Turkey. In the eastern shores of the Mediterranean sea - Syria, Lebanon and Israel - a similar species. In this park (Zlatni rt / Punta Corrente) it was brought by sailors.

Notes:

It is used as a source for turpentine, possibly the earliest known source. The turpentine of the terebinth is now called Chian, Scio, or Cyprian turpentine. The fruits are used in Cyprus for baking of a specialty village bread. In Crete, where the plant is called tsikoudia, it is used to flavor the local variety of pomace brandy, also called tsikoudia. In the Northern Sporades the shoots are used as a vegetable (called tsitsírava).The plant is rich in tannin and resinous substances and was used for its aromatic and medicinal properties in classical Greece. A mild sweet scented gum can be produced from the bark, and galls often found on the plant are used for tanning leather. Recently an anti-inflammatory triterpene has been extracted from these galls.In Turkey, where it is known as menengiç or bıttım, a coffee-like beverage known as menengiç kahvesi is made from the roasted fruit and a soap is made from the oil. Terebinth resin was used as a wine presevative in the ancient Near East.