Pistache trees deserve more use in the Rogue Valley – they thrive in our hot, dry summers, provide long lasting fall color, and have interesting leaf texture.
Chinese Pistache are used a lot as street trees in the hot valleys of northern California, giving us a clue to how they well they would work here,especially in urban situations. Being a Zone 7 tree, the Rogue Valley usually doesn’t get cold enough to cause any problems for the Pistache. Placing it in full sun, in well draining soil will help it survive any cold snaps.
These trees provide a spectacular fall color show of reds, oranges, crimsons, and yellows. Chinese Pistache will tolerate regular irrigation but are also relatively drought-tolerant and require no summer watering once established. The form of Pistache is not very uniform when young but they get a nice, dense canopy with age.
Being a slow growing tree – on average they will be about 25-30′ tall and wide – but much older specimens can reach 50′ tall. Pistache are prone to verticillum wilt if you have it in your soil (not overwatering will help avoid this problem) but are resistant to oak root fungus. This is one of our best choices for a drought tolerant shade tree that can be used in many situations. ‘Keith Davey’ is a named variety that is a fruitless male and has red-orange fall color. The straight species, if it is a female tree, will form blue to black berries.