Description :

• Trees to shrubs
• Leaves imparipinnate; leaflets subsessile, entire or dentate
• Flowers in axillary panicles
• Sepals 4 or 5, deltoid, ovoid or rotund, glabrous to densely pilose
• Petals 4 or 5, ovate, truncate, usually glabrous
• Stamens 8-10, unequal, stamens in pistillate flowers smaller
• Disc thick, lobed
• Ovary 1-locular with a single suspended ovule; style 1
• Fruit a small, slightly fleshy to dry drupe with thin, chartaceous, shining red exocarp
• Seeds 1
• x = 7, 15 (polyploidy)

Nomenclature:

• *Schinus L.
  • Linnaeus: 388 (1753)
  • Barkley: 160 (1944)

Distribution & Notes:

• Global : Species ± 25, South and Central America
• Southern Africa : Species 2, introduced: * Schinus molle L., Pepper Tree, widely cultivated because of its hardy nature, sometimes found as an escape, * S. terebinthifolius Raddi, has similar fruit, but broader leaflets, less frequently found as an escape