Home / Plants / Grow / Brazilian peppertree

Brazilian peppertree

Schinus terebinthifolius (accepted: Schinus terebinthifolia) · Anacardiaceae · all Schinus records

Your local evidence lens

Separate evidence questions, never one approval badge

Set a ZIP to compare this record with state distribution, native range, USDA hardiness, and invasive records.

A genus split is not a placement verdict. Set a ZIP to read the local documented split.

1. Fire evidence and conditions

Fire evidence: Fire-resistant — location does not change the cited classification.
Fire-performance conditions: 1 condition stated in cited fire-evidence rows.
Fire ecology context: No section-reviewed fire-ecology context is normalized.
Placement evidence: 1 source placement record; source schemes remain separate.
Evidence regions: California; Curitiba, Paraná, Brazil; Global
Maintenance: No sourced horticultural maintenance assertion is normalized; fire-test conditions do not supply maintenance advice.

2. Why this plant is relevant here

State distribution: Documented in AL, CA, FL, HI, PR, TX, VI.
Native range: No current cited or legacy state native range is normalized.
Introduced / established: No introduced or established row is normalized; that does not prove native status.
USDA hardiness: Documented minimum 9b; no upper limit is documented.

3. Legal, ecological, and broader status

Legal-list status: Set a location for an exact legal-list result; source silence is not clearance.
Seed-list status: Set a location to compare the separate state noxious-weed seed layer.
Reported invasive here: 2 ecological invasive reports; set a location to distinguish exact from regional context.
Broader regional context: Aggregate AK, HI, and L48 evidence is shown only as regional context, never as an exact-state finding.
Federal context: Federal designations remain separate from state legal-list results.

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.

Brazilian peppertree (Schinus terebinthifolius) — Photo: (c) Douglas Goldman, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), uploaded by Douglas Goldman (CC BY-SA), via iNaturalist. Species-typical, not necessarily this cultivar.

Form: tree
USDA hardiness: Minimum 9b; upper limit not documented
Mature height: ~30 ft
Water need: high
Grows in: AL, CA, FL, HI, PR, TX, VI
Rated in: California; Curitiba, Paraná, Brazil; Global
Family: Anacardiaceae
Evidence: 14 cited sources

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.

USDA PLANTS Database — Plant Characteristics · record SCTE · PLANTS Help Document 2022; characteristics cache retrieved 2026-08-23 · as of 2026-08-26

Minimum 9b · no upper limit documented · half zone precision · derived containing band

Exact source measurement: 28°F; mapped only to its containing half-zone.

Source taxon: Schinus terebinthifolius · source identifier match.

Source location: PlantCharacteristics record 93016, Temperature, Minimum (°F).

Conditions in the fire evidence

These describe tested or rated plant material. They are not horticultural maintenance instructions.

green: Flammability of tree species for use in fuelbreaks in forest-fire prevention evidence row, Landscape for Fire Protection evidence row

Where its sources say to plant it

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)

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.

Listed without a rating (12)

FLAMITS: FLAMmability plant traiTS database — Dryad / Global Ecology and Biogeography · Dryad version 9 · original source Corroboration Trait database lineage: meta-aggregator

12 cited rows from this source; its identity, lineage and tier are stated once.
- “time to flaming (s): 58.4” · score 58.4 (FLAMITS — time to flaming (s))
  
  FLAMITS record 5701; Ignitability measurement; plant part leaves; fuel live; predrying no; device epiradiator; site Kovalsyki2017-1; sampling ND. 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.
- “flaming duration (s): 1.3” · score 1.3 (FLAMITS — flaming duration (s))
  
  FLAMITS record 5706; Sustainability measurement; plant part leaves; fuel live; predrying no; device epiradiator; site Kovalsyki2017-1; sampling ND. 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.
- “flame height (cm): 1.7” · score 1.7 (FLAMITS — flame height (cm))
  
  FLAMITS record 5711; Combustibility measurement; plant part leaves; fuel live; predrying no; device epiradiator; site Kovalsyki2017-1; sampling ND. 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.
- “ignition frequency (%): 7” · score 7 (FLAMITS — ignition frequency (%))
  
  FLAMITS record 5716; Ignitability measurement; plant part leaves; fuel live; predrying no; device epiradiator; site Kovalsyki2017-1; sampling ND. 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.
- “flammability value: 0” · score 0 (FLAMITS — flammability value)
  
  FLAMITS record 5721; Ignitability measurement; plant part leaves; fuel live; predrying no; device epiradiator; site Kovalsyki2017-1; sampling ND. 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.
- “time to flaming (s): 58.4” · score 58.4 (FLAMITS — time to flaming (s))
  
  FLAMITS record 11924; Ignitability measurement; plant part twigs; fuel live; predrying no; device epiradiator; site Santos2018a-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.
- “flame height (cm): 4.79” · score 4.79 (FLAMITS — flame height (cm))
  
  FLAMITS record 11933; Combustibility measurement; plant part twigs; fuel live; predrying no; device epiradiator; site Santos2018a-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.
- “flammability value: 0” · score 0 (FLAMITS — flammability value)
  
  FLAMITS record 11942; Ignitability measurement; plant part twigs; fuel live; predrying no; device epiradiator; site Santos2018a-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.
- “burning duration (s): 9.6” · score 9.6 (FLAMITS — burning duration (s))
  
  FLAMITS record 11951; Sustainability measurement; plant part twigs; fuel live; predrying no; device epiradiator; site Santos2018a-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.
- “flame height (cm): 1.7” · score 1.7 (FLAMITS — flame height (cm))
  
  FLAMITS record 11960; Combustibility measurement; plant part twigs; fuel live; predrying no; device epiradiator; site Santos2018a-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.
- “rate of burning spread (cm/s): 1.6” · score 1.6 (FLAMITS — rate of burning spread (cm/s))
  
  FLAMITS record 11969; Sustainability measurement; plant part twigs; fuel live; predrying no; device epiradiator; site Santos2018a-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.
- “calorific value (kcal/kg): 4037.3” · score 4037.3 (FLAMITS — calorific value (kcal/kg))
  
  FLAMITS record 11978; Combustibility measurement; plant part twigs; fuel live; predrying no; device epiradiator; site Santos2018a-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.

Last verified 2026-08-24. JSON (CC BY 4.0)

Profiles: USDA PLANTS · GBIF ·

Schinus terebinthifolius (Brazilian peppertree). FireApproved. https://fireapproved.com/plants/schinus-terebinthifolia/. Last verified 2026-08-24.