Pistacia Lentiscus (Mastic Tree)

At the lower altitudes of Troodos we find the Pintacia lentiscus. The Mastic tree is an evergreen, aromatic, resinous bush or small tree, up to 5 m high, with a smooth and usually grayish cortex. The leaves are arranged alternately, composite, winged, arthiostatic, 5-10 x 3-7 cm. The leaflets are carried in 2-4 pairs and are oval, elongated or elliptical, leathery, dark green, with the ridge often evidently impinged. The flowers are monogenous and the plant dioica, so the plants are either male (only male flowers) or female and produce fruit. Male flowers are staggered, while the females are carried in stumps, in the armpits of the leaves. It blooms from February to March. Its fruit is spherical and hollow, around 5 mm in diameter, red in the beginning, but gradually becomes black and glossy during maturation, from September to December.

The Mastic tree is protected by the Forestry Legislation and logging of the shrub or small tree of relatively large dimensions (diameter of the trunk at a height of 130 cm above the ground greater than 15 cm) is required by the Department of Forests. A significant part of the areas covered by the habitat types in which the species is the main or parasitic species have been included in the NATURA 2000 Network. Cyprus has the obligation to take all necessary management and other protective measures to keep them in good conservation status.

Location

Flora - Fauna

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