Pepperwood and Fragrant Pistacia Are Not the Same Thing: 3 Tricks to Tell Them Apart Easily

Recently someone asked:"I bought a fragrant pistacia online, why does it seem more and more off the longer I grow it?" Most likely you got cheated -- nine times out of ten you bought a pepperwood! These two look so much alike, and sellers love to mix them up, especially at the seedling stage; if you don't look carefully, you really can mistake one for the other. Today I'll teach you 3tricks to tell them apart, so you'll never fall into a trap when buying green plants again!

Pepperwood and fragrant pistacia are completely different plants, and they aren't even in the same family or genus! Fragrant pistacia belongs to the Anacardiaceae family, Pistacia genus, while pepperwood belongs to the Rutaceae family, Zanthoxylum genus. Put simply, fragrant pistacia is "relatives" with Chinese pistache, while pepperwood is "one family" with the Sichuan pepper we eat -- they're not in the same circle at all.

Trick one: first look at the number of leaves -- this is the most intuitive difference! Take a branch and look carefully: the leaves of fragrant pistacia are "even-pinnate compound leaves," meaning the leaves grow in pairs with no single leaf at the tip; while pepperwood has "odd-pinnate compound leaves," with one extra leaf at the tip of the branch, like a little tail.

Let me give you an example: grab a branch and count from the bottom up. Fragrant pistacia might have 2, 4, 6 leaves in paired numbers; pepperwood has 3, 5, 7, with one lonely leaf left at the tip. If you're a beginner and can't remember the terms, that's fine -- just look at "whether there's a single leaf at the tip." If there is, it's pepperwood; if not, it's fragrant pistacia. Works every time.

Trick two: smell it! Both names contain "fragrant," but the scents are worlds apart. Gently rub a leaf with your hand: fragrant pistacia gives off a faint lemon fragrance, very pleasant to smell, a bit like the scent of a freshener, and the fragrance lingers fairly long; what does pepperwood smell like after rubbing? A bit like the pungent smell of Sichuan pepper, with a bit of a kick that not everyone can accept, and the smell fades quickly.

A friend once bought a "fragrant pistacia," and when they got home and rubbed a leaf, their whole hand smelled of Sichuan pepper -- only then did they realize they'd bought the wrong thing. Remember, if you want to tell them apart by scent, never just smell the leaf surface; you must rub it to release the smell, otherwise just putting your nose up to it makes it very easy to confuse them.

Trick three: look at the fruit and bark -- this suits slightly larger plants. The fruit of fragrant pistacia is red, and when ripe it looks like small cherries, hanging in clusters on the branches, very eye-catching; the fruit of pepperwood is black, a size smaller than fragrant pistacia's fruit, and looks more understated.

The bark is different too: fragrant pistacia's bark is rather rough, with obvious grain when you touch it, and a darker brown color; pepperwood's bark is relatively smooth, lighter in color, a bit like light gray. If the seller is selling a large seedling, you can brush aside the soil at the base and look at the bark or whether there's any fruit, and one comparison makes it clear.

Why bother telling these two apart? Besides not wanting to waste money buying the wrong one, their care is different too! Fragrant pistacia likes a warm, dry environment; it's drought-tolerant but afraid of waterlogging, and too much watering easily causes root rot; pepperwood is a bit more moisture-tolerant, so occasionally watering too often isn't a big problem, but it's afraid of cold, and in winter once the temperature drops below 5 degrees you have to move it indoors.

When buying these two plants online, don't just look at the product name -- many sellers label pepperwood as "fragrant pistacia" because fragrant pistacia sells for more. When the goods arrive, first check using the 3tricks I mentioned: look at whether there's a single leaf at the tip, rub a leaf and smell it, and look at the bark and fruit. As long as you remember these three points, you're guaranteed never to buy the wrong one again!