Description: Shrubs or trees, dioecious or sometimes polygamous.
Leaves alternate, [simple or] imparipinnate, rachis often slightly winged; leaflets ± opposite.
Inflorescences in terminal or upper axils, thyrses. Flowers unisexual, sometimes mixed with bisexual ones. Sepals 4 or 5. Petals 4 or 5. Male flowers with 8–10 stamens, below margin of disc, alternate ones longer; disc lobed between filaments; sometimes with a sterile ovary. Female flowers with 8–10 staminodes, ovary seated on disc, 1-locular.
Fruit a drupe; exocarp membranous, shining, fragile, separating from mesocarp at maturity; mesocarp resinous, adhering to bony endocarp.
Distribution and occurrence: World: c. 30 species, Mexico to Argentina. Australia: 2 species (cultivated & naturalized), WA, NT, Qld, S.A., N.S.W., Vic.
Text by M. J. Taylor; key edited by Kerry Gibbons, 15 Jun. 2023, from Jessup, L.W, Flora of Australia online [accessed 15 June 2023].
Taxon concept:
| | Key to the species | |
| 1 | Leaves pendent; leaflets usually 17 or more, lanceolate to linear, 2–10 mm wide, . | Schinus molle |
| Leaves not pendent; leaflets usually 9, occasionally 7–13, elliptic to oblong-ovate, 12–30 mm wide. | Schinus terebinthifolia |
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