The yield per acre is about 2800 lbs in California. Unusually strong apical dominance in vegetative and reproductive buds, but weak apical control. Male and female flowers are borne on separate plants in pistachio. On both sexes, flower buds are conspicuously larger than vegetative buds, and form in axils of 1-yr wood. The inflorescence is a panicle in both cases with 13 primary branches, each bearing 1 terminal and 5-19 lateral flowers.
Pistachios are wind pollinated.
Although bees may be attracted to male flowers for pollen, they are not attracted to females since they lack pollen, nectar, and petals. This is a desirable trait since kernels can be removed with fingers, and do not require cracking by the consumer. Alternate bearing . In pistachio, inflorescence buds abscise during May-August of heavy crop years, making it impossible to produce a crop the next year. This is responsible for the greatest economic losses in pistachio production.