Saqez is wild-pistachio resin with a documented place in Kurdish forest livelihoods. Historical trade, manufactured gum, regeneration studies and grafting explain different parts of its story.

Mature wild pistachio tree with a broad spreading crown in a dry field, with low walls and mountains behind
Baneh-ye Hajjiabad, Kashmar County, Iran, photographed by POS78 on 29 October 2024. A botanical example of Pistacia atlantica from northeastern Iran. POS78 · 29 October 2024 · CC BY 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons.

What saqez is

Saqez, also written saqqez, is a resin obtained from wild pistachio trees. Forestry research in the Zagros identifies the source as Pistacia atlantica and treats the resin as a non-wood forest product with economic value for rural households. [1] Bahram Grami’s historical account records its use as chewing gum and describes collection from cuts in the trunk. [2] The resin, the tree’s fruit and fruit oil are distinct products. A name such as wild pistachio should therefore be kept with the species and region discussed in the source, especially when comparing saqez with other Pistacia resins.

Historical trade and manufactured gum

Grami cites Guillaume Olivier’s 1796 account from the Kerand–Mahidasht area, where villagers collected resin and obtained oil from the fruit. He also notes Jakob Polak’s nineteenth-century observation of the commercial prominence of saqqez-e kordi. For the modern period, Grami records the establishment of a saqez manufacturing company near Sanandaj in 1990 and the appearance of Van natural chewing gum in 1994. [2] These dated references place saqez in trade and processing as well as household use. The dates describe reported historical developments; they do not establish the company’s present output or employment.

Qalajeh: old trees and missing younger classes

Morteza Pourreza, John D. Shaw and Hoshang Zangeneh studied Qalajeh forest in Kermanshah Province in a paper published in 2008. They measured 502 wild pistachio trees across 178 plots and found a shortage in the smaller diameter classes. Their model indicated a regeneration problem despite the survival of large trees. They discussed grazing, seed availability, growing conditions and seedling protection as relevant to recovery. [1] The finding makes conservation a question of the next generation of trees as well as existing trunks. It is a study of a particular forest, not a current census of the entire Zagros.

Tapping and growth: a separate field comparison

A 2015 study by Farideh Saeidizadeh, Loghman Ghahramany and Hedayat Ghazanfari compared two stands around Bivand-bala and Bivand-paeen in Javanroud, Kermanshah. Its published abstract reports samples from eighteen trees in a stand where resin extraction had stopped and sixteen in a stand still used for extraction. The former showed higher diameter growth during the period of contrasting management. [3] This gives the history of harvesting a measurable ecological dimension. The comparison concerns those stands and their management histories; it does not supply a universal safe number of cuts or a harvesting schedule for every tree.

Why rootstock and ancestry are different

University of California extension material distinguishes the nut-producing Pistacia vera from rootstocks used to support it. Its list includes Pistacia atlantica and UCB I, a hybrid of P. atlantica and P. integerrima. [4] In a grafted tree, a selected fruiting variety grows above the graft and the rootstock supports it below. This explains a practical relationship between wild pistachio and orchard production. Grafting does not turn one species into the other or establish a domestication genealogy. Saqez resin production, fruit harvest and rootstock breeding each belong to the wider Pistacia story, with different methods and evidence.

Sources and further reading

  1. Morteza Pourreza, John D. Shaw and Hoshang Zangeneh, Sustainability of wild pistachio (Pistacia atlantica Desf.) in Zagros forests, Iran, Forest Ecology and Management 255 (2008), pp. 3667–3671; original paper held by the US Forest Service.
  2. Bahram Grami, Saqqez, Encyclopaedia Iranica, 4 September 2015, updated 4 November 2015; historical accounts and manufacturing.
  3. Farideh Saeidizadeh, Loghman Ghahramany and Hedayat Ghazanfari, Impact of resin exploitation on diameter increment of Pistacia atlantica Trees, Iranian Journal of Forest and Poplar Research 23/1 (2015), pp. 178–189; published abstract.
  4. Craig Kallsen, Climate & Cultivars, University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources; archived material citing the 2008 Pistachio Production Manual.
  5. POS78, Baneh-ye Hajjiabad, 29 October 2024, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0; tree in Kashmar County.