Schinus Species, California Pepper Tree, Peppercorn Tree, Peruvian Mastic Tree

I have 3 very large ca pepper trees 1- 120 yrs approx. trunk about 180 in. 1- 80 yrs 80 in 1- 60 yrs 60 in the largest tree I think just ...Read Moredied is the trunk sellable its large

Has anyone had a problem with pepper tree roots getting into the swimming pool? We have a Schinus Molle - American Pepper Tree which is...Read More 7 years old and the trunk is approximately 25 feet from the pool; with no branches over-hanging the pool surround. The tree is regularly pruned and an attractive feature in the garden. Can anyone advise please?

Hi! I'm hoping someone can tell me how one harvests the peppercorns from the California Pepper Tree. I'm working on a farm in Mexico whic...Read Moreh has several trees whose peppercorns need to be harvested.

Is there an efficient, safe way to get the peppercorns? These trees are 8-10 meters tall. We are looking for other methods of harvesting that do not include climbing the trees.

Thank you for your help!

I live in the Turkish Republic of North Cyprus and planted three pepper trees each about 3 feet tall, three years ago they are now about1...Read More2 feet tall is this normal and how high will they grow

My soil is not very good it is a new garden with a lot of builders rubble

Regards alex

We have a line of these trees that were planted to demarcate two separate areas of our property around 20 years ago. They have grown ver...Read Morey prolifically, providing a wonderful habitat for birds, and much deep shade that we've been able to use in our swimming pool surrounding and for a lovely tea patio. Growth has been left untended for a number of years, so I recently embarked on an intense pruning exercise with a chain saw. The trees have responded positively ... and almost visibly ... to this, and the removal of both dead and living wood has provided us with excellent fire wood; a blessing in the Zimbabwe's winter months. The dry dead wood burns quickly and completely. I've discovered that the green wood burns too; a lot more slowly, but just as completely.

Does anyone have any experience of transplanting this tree?

I'm asking because it's one of my favourite trees and I've g...Read Moreot one in my garden which is about 2.5-3 meters tall but it's been growing in the shade of two much bigger trees and hasn't got room to grow properly either horizontally or vertically. Having mentioned to my husband that I wanted to try moving it to another spot sometime, this morning I found that our gardener had dug it out - which he did all at once, rather than in stages over a period of months as I had intended. Luckily, I discovered this shortly after it had been done and it seemed to have a decent-sized root ball (though many large roots had been chopped right through), so we put it back in its original place with some nice compost and lots of water in the hope that it might survive.

Does anyone know if this gorgeous tree can survive this sort of inadvertent brutality? If so, please let me know; if not, watch this space. BTW, the moral of this scary story is don't wander around your garden thinking out loud.

Help! My Pepper Tree's upper branches are dying off. It's an older tree (I'd guess 25 years old) and has thrived in the past. I learned ...Read Morefrom a neighbor that his three trees, over the last three years, have died. Nothing has changed in the landscape and immediate environment. I am concerned about this development as this tree provides not only beauty but privacy to my property. Can anyone help?

I have had great luck with my two year old california pepper tree. However, I do need help. I was away for two weeks and my drip system...Read More froze up on me. The calcification clogged my drip on my california pepper tree. Now it is brown and apparently dying.
CAN ANYONE PLEASE TELL ME WHAT I CAN DO TO BRING IT BACK. I absolutely am heartbroken. It is about 15 feet tall now, and was beautiful. HELP.

Pepper trees provide excellent shade in the inland valleys and foothills of Southern California. In addition to benefiting from their sha...Read Morede in summer, my horses enjoy snacking on the leaves. I planted my first young Pepper Tree behind one of my horses' turnouts last weekend. Although the tree is only about 3 1/2 feet tall and has a very small trunk, my horse has been standing beside the tree every day... either waiting for it to grow or just to let me know that he appreciates the gesture :)

This tree was originally brought to Mexico by the spaniards from South America several hundreds years ago. Now it grows everywhere in the...Read More wild and is known by the name of "pirul". It is usually a wild tree and not grown in gardens for any reason. It has become a very important part of mexican traditional medicine, as its branches are used to "sweep" a person¨s body and thus "casting away all bad luck" and "evil eye". That is called "una barrida con pirul". It is common practice in many rural communities in today Mexico. Just thought you might find it interesting.

does anybody know how to tell the difference between this tree and the Schinus terebinthifolius? it sounds like this one is much more pr...Read Moreeferable to the other, which is apparently terribly invasive. i just don't want to end up with the wrong one. thanks!

I was absolutely dumbfounded to learn that this ( Calif. pepper, Shinus molle) is not a Calif. native plant. Could anyone elaborate on th...Read Moreis?
It grows like a native all over the Southwest and especially in California where I live.

Native to South America. Another common name is Peruvian pepper tree.

Happy memories of this graceful tree whilst working in Bolivia (Cochabamba).

A candidate being tested here in London for p...Read Moreotential use as a drought resisitant street/parks tree

I had a large pepper tree professionally planted when I bought my house in Joshua Tree CA in 2002, so that I could have some "instant" s...Read Morehade for my dog.

It is pretty but I have found that it doesn't stand up to the high winds we have here. We tried removing the tree stakes and cables earlier this year because we were tired of tripping over them. The first big wind we had nearly knocked the tree over and we had to reinstall the stakes. Some 20+ year old specimens at the local post office blew over during some similar winds last year. We have practiced slow drip watering for the life of the tree to discourage shallow rooting, but it didn't seem to help...

i bought my tree about 3 weeks ago and so far so good its a big tree so well established already i have seen these trees along the southe...Read Moren ca freeways and i think they are just beautiful i put it in my back yard so my 3 young boys can make a tree fort in it....a little mess is so worth its beauty and living out here in the high desert it makes for one great shade tree i dont think these trees require to much water and they can tolerate high winds that are fequent i hope this helps anyone looking to invest in one of these magistic beauties
lovin life in the high desert
laura

Have lived in Palmdale, CA (High Desert) for many years and the Schinus Molle does well in our area. Wind can be an issue, but I have sev...Read Moreeral in my yard and love them. I am in the culinary industry and wonder what the proper way is to harvest and process to the pepper seeds.

I also grew up with a pepper tree in the backyard and have memories of climbing into its thick branches to dream and read. They grew eve...Read Morerywhere around our town, Santa Maria, California, along Highway 101 before the freeway went in and the ubiquitous oleander usurped its position. In fact, in the 1940s, the trees along the highway were never trimmed, so the foliage hung down to the ground all around and people we called "tramps" would sleep beneath them in snug little rooms. Recently, Santa Maria has begun to remove those "messy" pepper trees and replace them with tidier but less picturesque models.

Several years ago I wondered if I could grow pepper trees from seeds, thinking it would be a good experiment to see if I could bonsai them. I collected some seeds from trees still growing along the old highway that goes through the old town of Nipomo (Thompson Road). I planted them in one-gallon pots in regular potting soil and several of them sprouted and grew with no trouble at all.

I'm now living on a ranch a few miles outside of Santa Maria and have planted the young trees in the ground to develop their trunks. I trim them back every few months, and they have remained healthy and vigorous through a late summer, autumn, winter and spring. I water them regularly and well and have applied nine-month, slow-release Osmocote once.

It happens that there is a marvelous specimen of the species beside our small cottage. It was there when I lived in this house in 1977-78, at which time it had a single trunk with well developed branches. We moved into the house one year ago, and today, that same tree has three huge trunks that have weighted themselves into almost horizontal positions, with long branches extending to the ground. It is quite beautiful, lacy and green, giving wonderful shade. We rake the debris into a compost heap and don't find it a problem. We use a leaf blower to clear off the shale and railroad tie patio surrounding our flower beds. Its beauty far outweighs any difficulties. And, from one arching trunk, we've hung our homemade garden bell (the cutoff top of an oxygen tank) and on quiet evening, just before the quail come in to roost at dusk, we send stirring reverberations up and down the canyon.

I would almost say that the pepper tree is my favorite . . . but of course, there is the ancient oak on the other side of the house . . . and the huge multi-trunk sycamores down by the dry creek bed.

Cheers.

This tree is so widely planted in inland Australia and does so well there that many people mistakenly think it is a native. It is a welco...Read Moreme source of shade,and a cool green colour in harsh conditions.

It is a messy tree, don't have hanging over your roof because it will make a ton of litter on your roof. Kills everything underneath the...Read More dripline. Stands up to high winds and is a great shade tree to sit under. The wood is brittle so far spreading branches may break off. I want to propagate some of these, seeds don't appear to grow.

As a child I grew up with cal.pepper trees in our back yard.I used to climb them and never suffered any rashes as some people predict. Di...Read Moresneyland in Anaheim has tons of them lining the streets and they are beautiful green color.I live in the Colorado River area between AZ. and CA. in zone 9 and purchased two of them 2 years ago and they are doing great,no mess so far.They can't be as messy as arizona Mesquites and they do not defoliate like most trees here.Also they stand up to the heavy winds that we have in the desert.

This is a pretty hardy tree here in Zone 9b. This tree is incredibly dirty- produces tons of leaves, seeds, bark etc... not a good tree ...Read Moreto plant anything under. Funny it's called the California Pepper Tree since it's really from South America (Peru, Argentina and Chile) like all the other Schinus species (Brazil, for terabinthifolia). No idea how it got that name, though it does remarkably well in California and is incredibly popular as a public landscaping tree. ( Do not confuse with the more obnoxious species, S teribinthefolia, which is also all over out here though thankfully not nearly as common as Schinus molle.. Schinus terabinthifolia is a real weed and incredibly invasive... just ask the Floridians or Hawaiians). But this one seems to be, at least in California, much less invasive... really not invasive at all here. In fact, have not seen new seedlings ever come up around these. Must be easy to propagate, though as they are all over and fairly inexpensive.

I changed my rating from neutral to positive now that I have moved to Acton in southern California's Antelope Valley, a forbidding climate for many plants. This tree not only survives here, but looks great all the time, is incredibly drought and wind tolerant, and seems to be happy in the poorest soils imaginable. For year-round greenery and shade, this is one of the best options there is for this area (the California High Desert).

I am in Texas and have a customer looking for a California pepper tree. I am having some trouble finding it here and have found out even...Read More thought it's hardy to Zone 8 the tree will not do very well here.

I have heard pros and cons regarding California Pepper Tree berries. Some say they are poisonious, others say it can be used as Red Pepp...Read Moreer in cooking.

There are two type of Pink/red pepper used for culinary purposes. One is a pink berry from a tree. The other is a ripe Piper Nigram, which is a vineing plant (I have often seen in Kerela, India.)