With premission from irandriedfruit.comWith premission for irandriedfruit.com

What's in a Name?

Scientific Name: Pistacia vera

Common Name: Pistachio, Green Almond 

The species name Pistacia comes form the Greek word pistake meaning nut. The specific epithet means true, real, and actual. From this it can be observed that pistachio is a “true nut!”

 

            Domain - EukaryaFrom irandriedfruit.com

                Kingdom – Plantea

                    Phylum - Anthophyta

                       Class- Magnoliopsida

                            Order - Sapindales

                                 Family - Anacardiaceae

                                    Genus - Pistacia

                                        Species – Pistacia vera

 

Domain: Pistacia vera is a multicellular, eukaryotic organism.

Kingdom: The tree contains a cell wall, is non-motile, has chlorophyll and a chloroplast and therefore    belongs to that plant kingdom.

Phylum: The tree has a vascular system for water propagation. This plant also fruits in order to produce the pistachio nut therefore it belongs to the anthophyta phylum.

Class: Pistacia vera has compound leaves, a tap root and the nut splits into two cotyledon so this plant is a eudicot therefore it also belongs to the magnoliopsida class.

Order: The pistachio nut is fleshy so it would fall under the order of  sapindales.

Family: This tree belongs to the anacardiaceae family because like most members of this family, the pistachio lives in tropical and subtropical climates.

Genus: The Pistacia genus shares two common characteristics: all the trees are decidouse and all are wind pollinated.

Species: The species Pistacia vera is the only “true” pistachio tree. This species was the first and original species of this plants and it has given rise to different tree and shrub species of the Pistacia genus.

From wikipedia.org

 

Form this polygenetic tree of life it can be observed that plants, such as the pistachio tree, are more closely related to other eukaryotes such as animals and fungi then bacterial species. This tree shows how the pistachio fits in amongst all other living organisms.

 

 

 

 

The pistachio belongs to the same family as the mango and the cashew. The tree below shows the close relationship between the pistachio and the cashew. This tree also shows how the Pistacia vera relates to some other species of the Pistacia genus

Pistachio Family Tree

This tree was constructed from a study done by Kafkas and Perl-Treves. It is based on RAPD fingerprinting patterns using PCR and primer BC 348 to cut the DNA. After a relationship among the nine Pistachio species was establishes using nuclear DNA, morphological characteristic were also taken into account. Using morphological and genetic characteristics it was discovered that the closest relative of Pistacia vera is the Pistacia kjinuk.

 

To see where this amazing tree lives and what it looks like go to Habitat and Description