Botanical name: Pistacia vera    Family: Anacardiaceae (Cashew family)
Synonyms: Pistacia trifolia, Pistacia macrophylla, Pistacia officinarum

Pistachio is a tree that grows up to 10 m tall. It has deciduous pinnate leaves 10-20 cm long. The plants are dioecious, with separate male and female trees. The flowers are without petals and unisexual and borne in panicles. The fruit is a drupe, containing an elongated seed, which is the edible portion. The seed, commonly thought of as a nut, is a culinary nut, not a botanical nut. The fruit has a hard, cream-colored exterior shell. The seed has a mauve-colored skin and light green flesh, with a distinctive flavor. When the fruit ripens, the shell changes from green to an autumnal yellow/red and abruptly splits partly open. Pistachio comes from Central Asia and Middle-East.

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The flower labeled Pistachio is ...