Fresh pistachios sold by street vendors in Amman, Jordan.
NATIVE TO THE NEAR EAST AND southwest Asia (Zohary and Hopf 2000), pistachio trees (Pistacia vera) are widely cultivated in the Middle East. It is not surprising that Jacob would include them as a special treat from Canaan to present to the leader of Egypt: “Then their father Israel said to them, ‘If it must be, then do this: Put some of the best products of the land in your bags and take them down to the man as a gift—a little balm and a little honey, some spices and myrrh, some pistachio nuts and almonds’” (Genesis 43:11, NIV). Aleppo, Syria, is famous for the production of pistachios, which are known in Arabic as “nuts of Aleppo.”
Pistachio is in the same family as poison ivy, as well as mangos and cashews. For this reason, people who are sensitive to poison ivy are often adversely affected by eating raw pistachios.
Like the flowers of its relatives, flowers of pistachio are green and inconspicuous. The trees can be quite large. They have dark green, compound leaves. Pistachio flowers in the spring and, because the trees are unisexual, only one male tree is planted among female trees. In the late summer, the fruits develop. Technically these fruits are drupes, with a fleshy outer part covering the seed. The outer part is red, and that is why pistachio shells are sometimes dyed red. In the Middle East, the young fruits are eaten. After the fleshy part of the fruit is removed, the seeds are allowed to dry and crack, revealing the seed, or pistachio nut.
Developing pistachios in an orchard near Aleppo, Syria.
