Pistacia lentiscus

A dense, hardy evergreen shrub native to the Mediterranean that you'll often find growing wild. Its dark green leaves and red berries contrast beautifully with germander and rosemary in our cloud gardens, where it takes to topiary with ease.

Pistacia lentiscus is one of the most authentically Mediterranean shrubs, a defining component of natural maquis and garrigue vegetation throughout the region. The pinnate leaves are evergreen, dark glossy green with red young tips, and aromatic when crushed. Tiny red flowers appear in spring on female plants, followed by clusters of small red-then-black fruits in autumn. On the Greek island of Chios, the plant is tapped for its aromatic mastic resin, used since antiquity. Hardy to -10°C, exceptionally drought-tolerant, fire-resistant, salt-tolerant and undemanding in poor stony alkaline soils, mastic is one of the very best plants for an authentic Mediterranean landscape.

Lentisc reaches 2–4 m as a free-standing shrub, or can be clipped to 1–2 m as a dense informal hedge. Use in informal mixed Mediterranean borders with Cistus, Phlomis fruticosa, Lavandula stoechas, Salvia rosmarinus, Helichrysum italicum and Olea europaea for a textbook maquis composition. The dense dark glossy foliage works as a background for silver-grey Mediterranean herbs and pale stone walls. Excellent as a clipped low hedge along driveways and paths in dry gardens, as a coastal screening shrub where Hibiscus and Photinia would suffer, and as a fire-break planting around buildings in fire-prone landscapes. Tolerates very hard renovation pruning.