Anacardiaceae, the Cashew Family
Brazilian pepper may grow as a shrub or a small- to medium-sized tree that can attain heights of 45 feet. Plants are typically multi-stemmed, and the crown is often a dense tangle of branches. As in other members of the Anacardiaceae, wounds to the plant exude a clear resinous sap that turns black when it dries. This resin imparts a distinctive, turpentine-like aroma to the plant that is particularly noticeable when a piece is crushed or broken.
The leaves are alternately arranged and odd-pinnately compound, with three to 13 (usually seven to nine) sessile leaflets. The rachis (midrib) of the leaves is sometimes winged or reddish-colored. The oblong to elliptic leaflets, which measure 1 to 2 inches long, are dark green above and paler green below. The midvein and parallel lateral veins are also lighter in color, making them conspicuous on the upper leaflet surface. The leaflet apices are rounded to acute, and the margins are often toothed.
Brazilian pepper is dioecious, with staminate (male) and carpellate (female) flowers borne on separate plants. The tiny (less than 1/10 inch long), five-petaled, white flowers are borne in short (1 to 4 inches long) panicles in the leaf axils near the branch tips. In Florida, plants may flower throughout the year, with peak flower production during the autumn months.
The fruit are spherical drupes (fleshy fruit with a single seed enclosed in a bony endocarp or pit), approximately 1/5 inch in diameter, which turn glossy, bright red at maturity. The pit that contains the seed is irregularly globose in shape, light brown in color and has a wrinkled surface.
Native to Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay, Brazilian pepper is widely cultivated as an ornamental. It has escaped from cultivation and naturalized in much of Tropical America, the West Indies, South Africa, northern Africa, the Mascarene Islands, Europe, southern Asia, Guam, the Marshall Islands, New Caledonia and the eastern and western coasts of Australia. In the United States, Brazilian pepper has established outside of cultivation in southern California, southern Texas, southern Alabama and Hawaii, as well as Florida. Mature trees can tolerate shade, seasonal inundation, drought and even fire, but are sensitive to freezing temperatures, which has limited the expansion of this species into more temperate regions.
Brazilian pepper occurs throughout peninsular Florida — more commonly in the central and southern peninsula and to a lesser extent in protected and coastal areas in the northern part of the state. It is most often found on moist to mesic disturbed sites, but has also invaded a diverse array of habitats including sand dunes, shell mounds, coastal strands, tidal marshes, swamps, mangrove forests, hammocks, wet flatwoods, scrub and upland pine forests.
Brazilian pepper might be confused with poison sumac (Toxicodendron vernix), which also occurs in wet habitats. Poison sumac can be distinguished by the more consistently red leaf rachises, leaves mostly with 11 to 13 leaflets, entire leaflet margins, acuminate leaflet apices, longer inflorescences and fruit that are white or pale yellow at maturity.
By introducing this species as an ornamental, humans have acted as the primary agent of long-range dispersal. Birds, reptiles and small mammals consume the fruit and disperse the seed. Seeds may also be carried on freshwater and ocean currents, but buoyancy and viability diminish after five to seven days. Plants produce suckers from damaged roots or cut trunks.
Brazilian pepper was first introduced to Florida as an ornamental in the 1840s, and by the 1950s it had been documented as an invasive pest in both disturbed and natural habitats. It is estimated to have invaded over 700,000 acres in Florida, including large swaths of Everglades National Park. Recent research (Mukherjee et al. 2012) indicates that two distinct genetic lineages have been introduced to Florida and that hybridization has enabled the species to expand into new niches. The environmental damage caused by Brazilian pepper is profound. It rapidly colonizes disturbed areas to form dense, monotypic (single species) stands that shade out and eventually exclude native plant species, reduce wildlife diversity and dramatically alter natural fire regimes. In the same family as poison ivy, Brazilian pepper plants contain chemicals that can cause skin and respiratory irritation in sensitive individuals. Laboratory research suggests it is allelopathic (chemically inhibits the germination and growth of other species), but this has not yet been documented by fieldwork. The genus has been treated as either masculine or feminine, so the epithet may be spelled terebinthifolius or terebinthifolia. Classical Greek and Latin usage seems to be feminine. We are following the Atlas of Florida Vascular Plants, USDA Germplasm Resources Information Network, Missouri Botanical Garden Tropicos database and The Plant List (an online database of plant names compiled by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and the Missouri Botanical Garden) in spelling the epithet terebinthifolia.”