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Schinus molle

Common name:	California Peppertree	Family:	Anacardiaceae
Author:	L.	Botanical references:	200
Synonyms:
Known Hazards:	The seed contains an allergenic substance that can irritate the mucus membrane[200].
Range:	S. America.
Habitat:	Dry regions in the Andes, it is found as a bush in dry lands but reaches tree size in dry river beds with accessible underground water[200].
Edibility Rating (1-5):	2	Medicinal Rating (1-5):	1

Other Possible Synonyms:	From various places across the web, may not be correct. See below.
	S. huygan[G]
Other Common Names:	From various places around the Web, may not be correct. See below.
	Aroeira Salsa [E], Brazil Peppertree [E], California Pepper Tree [H,DEN2], Molle [E], Pepper Tree [MS], Peruvian Peppertree [P,B], Schinus [E], Yalan Biber Aghaji [E], Yalanci Biber [E],
Epithets:	From a Dictionary of Botanical Epithets
	molle = soft
Systematics:	From a USDA Plants Database
	Order: Sapindales. Sumac family
Other Range Info:	From the Ethnobotany Database
	Brazil La Mexico Paraguay Peru Turkey
Noxious, Invasive and Injurious Weeds	From USDA PLANTS database, Weeds Australia , DEFRA Injurious Weeds
	Listed as noxious/invasive for: USA Invasive.

Physical Characteristics

An evergreen tree growing to 8m by 8m at a fast rate. It is hardy to zone 9. It is in leaf all year, in flower from April to June. The scented flowers are dioecious (individual flowers are either male or female, but only one sex is to be found on any one plant so both male and female plants must be grown if seed is required). The plant not is self-fertile. We rate it 2/5 for edibility and 1/5 for medicinal use.

The plant prefers light (sandy), medium (loamy) and heavy (clay) soils and requires well-drained soil. The plant prefers acid, neutral and basic (alkaline) soils. It cannot grow in the shade. It requires dry or moist soil.

Habitats and Possible Locations

Woodland, Sunny Edge, Dappled Shade, By Walls, By South Wall, By West Wall.

Edible Uses

Condiment Drink Gum.

The dried and roasted berries are used as a pepper substitute[46, 177, 181, 183, 200]. Some caution is advised, see the notes above on toxicity.
An (essential?) oil distilled from the fruit is used as a spice in baked goods and candy[183].
The fruits are pulverised and used in cooling drinks called 'horchatas' in S. America[2, 46, 183].
A wine is made from the twigs and another from the berries[2].
A gum that exudes from the bark is used for chewing[46, 177].

Medicinal Uses

Disclaimer

Digestive Purgative.

A resinous gum obtained from the bark has been used in folk medicine to treat digestive disorders[229].
A purgative known as 'American Mastic' is obtained from the tree[245]. This report is probably linked to the one above[K].

Other Uses

Miscellany.

An oil from the leaves reduces the surface tension of water[200].

Cultivation details

Prefers a well-drained soil in full sun[200]. It likes growing in sandy soils[188] and succeeds in a hot dry position[166].
A fast-growing tree[188] in its native habitat, though it is likely to be much slower in areas where it is marginally hardy[K].
This species is not very hardy outdoors in Britain, though it can succeed when grown against a sunny wall in the milder areas of the country[166, 200].
The oily leaves smell and taste of pepper when they are crushed[245].
Dioecious, male and female plants must be grown if seed is required.

Propagation

Seed - we have no information for this species but suggest sowing the seed in a warm greenhouse in mid spring. Prick out the seedlings into individual pots once they are large enough to handle and grow them on in the greenhouse for at least their first winter before planting out in early summer[K].
Cuttings of almost ripe wood, 8cm with a heel, August to early September in a frame. Fair to good percentage[78].

Scent

Leaves: Crushed: The oily leaves smell and taste of pepper when they are crushed[245].

Suppliers

For more details of plant suppliers please see our Suppliers Page which lists many more places to look.

Web References

[H] Details of Scandanavian and European Common names in Henriette's names database
[E] Ethnobotany Data (common names, uses, countries) from the Ethnobotany Database.
[B] Data (Latin & Common names, other references) from the BONAP's Synonymized Checklist of the Vascular Flora of the United States, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands.
[G] Data (Common Names, Uses, Distribution) from the USDA/ARS NPGS's GRIN taxonomic database.
[C] Taxon data. from the CalFlora database.
[PHARM] Phytochemical Data (common names, uses, countries) from Dr Duke's Phytochemical Database.
[P] Data. (uses, distribution, wetland) from the USDA'a Plants database.
[HP] Links, Photos, Suppliers from Hortiplex Plant Database
[R] Rainforest medicinal Data (common names, medicinal uses, images) from the Rain-Tree.
[DEN] Data _ Photos (Good Identification info) from the Virginia Tech's Dendrology Deptarments' Tree Fact Sheets.

References for the family Anacardiaceae.

To be included in the Flora of China.

See the PFAF Links Pages for other sources.

Also try Photos and info from the The Plants Database which has 14,000 images.

References

[K] Ken Fern
Notes from observations, tasting etc at Plants For A Future and on field trips.

[2] Hedrick. U. P. Sturtevant's Edible Plants of the World. Dover Publications 1972 ISBN 0-486-20459-6
Lots of entries, quite a lot of information in most entries and references.

[46] Uphof. J. C. Th. Dictionary of Economic Plants. Weinheim 1959
An excellent and very comprehensive guide but it only gives very short descriptions of the uses without any details of how to utilize the plants. Not for the casual reader.

[78] Sheat. W. G. Propagation of Trees, Shrubs and Conifers. MacMillan and Co 1948
A bit dated but a good book on propagation techniques with specific details for a wide range of plants.

[166] Taylor. J. The Milder Garden. Dent 1990
A good book on plants that you didn't know could be grown outdoors in Britain.

[177] Kunkel. G. Plants for Human Consumption. Koeltz Scientific Books 1984 ISBN 3874292169
An excellent book for the dedicated. A comprehensive listing of latin names with a brief list of edible parts.

[181] Pesman. M. W. Meet Flora Mexicana. Dale S. King. Arizona. 1962
Very readable flora but rather lacking botanically. A few notes on useful plants.

[183] Facciola. S. Cornucopia - A Source Book of Edible Plants. Kampong Publications 1990 ISBN 0-9628087-0-9
Excellent. Contains a very wide range of conventional and unconventional food plants (including tropical) and where they can be obtained (mainly N. American nurseries but also research institutes and a lot of other nurseries from around the world.

[188] Brickell. C. The RHS Gardener's Encyclopedia of Plants and Flowers Dorling Kindersley Publishers Ltd. 1990 ISBN 0-86318-386-7
Excellent range of photographs, some cultivation details but very little information on plant uses.

[200] Huxley. A. The New RHS Dictionary of Gardening. 1992. MacMillan Press 1992 ISBN 0-333-47494-5
Excellent and very comprehensive, though it contains a number of silly mistakes. Readable yet also very detailed.

[229] Elias. T. The Complete Trees of N. America. Field Guide and Natural History. Van Nostrand Reinhold Co. 1980 ISBN 0442238622
A very good concise guide. Gives habitats, good descriptions, maps showing distribution and a few of the uses. It also includes the many shrubs that occasionally reach tree proportions.

[245] Genders. R. Scented Flora of the World. Robert Hale. London. 1994 ISBN 0-7090-5440-8
An excellent, comprehensive book on scented plants giving a few other plant uses and brief cultivation details. There are no illustrations.

Readers Comments

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Plant information taken from the Plants For A Future - Species Database. Copyright (c) 1997-2003.
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