Enter your ZIP to see whether this is legal to plant in your state, and whether it survives your winter.
Yes, Brazilian peppertree is rated fire resistant, though landscape performance depends on watering and maintenance.
Pesquisa Florestal Brasileira called it “poorly flammable,” with a flammability value of zero. The study reported a flame duration of 1.3 seconds and a mean flame height of 1.7 centimeters. FLAMITS records 58.4 seconds to flaming for live leaves that had not been dried before testing. The combustion-intensity index was 2, but that index measures burning intensity rather than determining the source’s recommendation. The ignition measurement describes the tested leaves, not every way a mature tree may encounter fire.
The University of California’s extension service included Brazilian peppertree among its examples for fire-protection landscaping on irrigated hillsides. Its recommendation depends on minimizing fuel volume, watering each plant to its needs, and removing accumulated litter. Those conditions matter particularly because Brazilian peppertree has high water needs. The Diablo Firesafe Council likewise placed the species in its favorable-performance table, citing nine references for it. The council warns that most ranking terms in its underlying references were undefined, so its favorable rating should not be read as a precise degree of resistance.
Taken together, the laboratory finding and the two landscape sources support treating Brazilian peppertree as fire resistant, provided the California guidance is not stripped of its maintenance conditions. Fire performance is only part of the planting decision: the species is also flagged as invasive in two jurisdictions.
Form
tree
Mature height
~30 ft
Water need
high
Rated in
California; Curitiba, Paraná, Brazil; Global
On this lot
1. Fire evidence and conditions
Fire evidence
Fire-resistant — location does not change the cited classification.
The guide presents itself as fire performance ratings for common landscape plants in a fire-prone California setting. FireApproved publishes 104 exact owners as republished California context. It is not an independent rating, a current endorsement, or parcel suitability.
2. Why this plant is relevant here
State distribution
Documented in AL, CA, FL, HI, PR, TX, VI.
Native range
Introduced / established
USDA hardiness
Documented minimum 9b; no upper limit is documented.
3. Legal, ecological, and broader status
Legal-list status
Seed-list status
Reported invasive here
2 ecological invasive reports.
Broader regional context
Federal context
How to read this page
The status above is computed from the cited rows below: independent recommendations can support a fire-resistant result, an avoid row can produce keep-away, and disagreement stays visible as conflict. Placement notes preserve each source’s own scheme rather than translating unlike rules into one scale. This is evidence about a plant, not permission to plant it in every part of the defensible space; Zone 0 remains noncombustible.
Plant hardiness evidence
These values describe the plant source. Your ZIP zone comes from the separate 2023 USDA
Plant Hardiness Zone Map. Whole-zone values stay whole-zone, and a single unresolved value
is not treated as a tolerance range. Different source boundaries stay separate: overlapping
statements are compared independently, while only ranges with no shared zone are called a conflict.
Placement rules below use each source's own distances or named zones, tied to its rating.
They are not interchangeable with the directory's current Zone 0 guidance.
Landscape for Fire Protection: irrigated hillsides [maire-1968-fire-protection-landscape] (with its recommendation)
Fire Performance of Common Plants: Table 1 (favorable in 3 or more references) [diablo-guide-to-plants-three-reference-vote] (with its recommendation)
The evidence
Grouped by what each source concluded. Primary evidence rated the plant itself
(a lab, field program, or original curation); corroboration compiled or
republished another source's rating and resolves to its root lineage.
Schinus terebinthifolia (Brazilian pepper) appears in the source's conditioned examples for landscaping irrigated hillsides. Fuel volume is to be minimized, plants watered to their needs, and accumulated litter removed.
Corroboration (1 rows from 1 source)
Fire Performance of Common Plants (Guide to Plants) — Diablo Firesafe Council · live page captured 2026-08-29 · original sourceCorroborationMirrorlineage: ucfpl-berkeley resolves to Defensible Space Landscaping in the Urban/Wildland Interface: A Compilation of Fire Performance Ratings of Residential Landscape Plants
“Table 1: favorable fire performance rating in 3 or more references (refs 5,9,11,12,22,40,41,42,53)”
The Diablo Firesafe Council Guide to Plants lists Schinus terebinthifolius (Brazilian pepper tree) as tree, evergreen, in Table 1: plants with a favorable fire performance rating in 3 or more references. The guide cites 9 of its 57 numbered references for this row (5,9,11,12,22,40,41,42,53). The guide states the ranking terms in its underlying references were mostly undefined and makes no attempt to rank within the list, and that fire performance is compromised without maintenance.
Listed without a rating (12)Corroboration (12 rows from 1 source)
12 cited rows from this source; its identity, lineage and tier are stated once.
Primary study Kovalsyki2017: Kovalsyki, B., Takashina, I. K., Tres, A., Tetto, A .F., & Batista, A. C. (2016). Inflamabilidade de espécies arbóreas para uso em cortinas de segurança na prevenção de incêndios florestais. Pesquisa florestal brasileira, 36, 387-391.
Shared row context: plant part leaves; fuel live; predrying no; device epiradiator; site Kovalsyki2017-1; sampling ND.
Primary study Santos2018a: Santos, J. F. L., Batista, A. C., Tres, A., Tetto, A. F., & Kovalsyki, B. (2018a). Flammability and combustibility of potential species for use as fuel breaks. In: D. X. Viegas, Advances in Forest Fire Research 2018 (pp. 788-793), Portugal, University of Coimbra.
Shared row context: plant part twigs; fuel live; predrying no; device epiradiator; site Santos2018a-1; sampling ND.
