North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Geoffrey Tolle <Gtolle0709@wowway.com>]

    For those truly interested in exploring this topic long-term, I'd 
like to point out that there is a /Pistacia mexicana/ (or /texicana/, if 
you swing that way) which lives at least as far north as San Antonio in 
the botanical garden (minimal Winter protection as far as I could tell). 
The seed is, apparently "inedible" (I can neither confirm nor deny). 
There may very well be some Winter-hardiness in those genes which could 
be bred into some hybrids with a european or asian pistachio. Although 
that technically puts it in 8a or so, I know that they've survived 
several multi-day hard freezes in the last couple of years. I haven't 
seen how they've survived but I'm sure the botanists at the botanical 
gardens could tell you more. Oh, they also have Texas pawpaws and a 
couple of other trees with potentially interesting genetics.

                                                            Geoffrey Tolle

S & E Hills wrote:
> This may not be what you are looking for, but One Green World is offering a
> pistachio that they claim will take zone 6 winters.  I'm skeptical, but were
> I not running out of space I might be looking to get one myself.
>
> S. Hills
> Zone 6b Michigan
>