1911, an editorial in the Los Angeles Times celebrated the pepper tree: However, S. molle fell out of favor as a street tree in the early twentieth century, in part because it hosts black scale, a scale insect which threatened the Citrus groves of Southern California. The trees also tend to heave up sidewalks with their roots, produce suckers, and interfere with buried telephone wires and sewer pipes. Many of the oldest trees were uprooted and new street plantings were banned in the citrus colonies (Los Angeles banned new street plantings in 1930). Cultivation The tree reproduces through seed, suckers and cuttings. The seeds have a particularly hard coat and germination rates are greatly improved after they have passed through the gut of birds or other animals. Seeds germinate in spring, with seedlings slow growing until established. The seeds easily germinate under the tree in the existing leaf litter of the mother tree, by the hundreds at once and can easily be transplanted. References External links Schinus molle List of Chemicals (Dr. Duke's) Celtnet Spice Guide entry for Pink Peppercorns Antidepressants Dioecious plants Drought-tolerant trees Flora naturalised in Australia Medicinal plants Ornamental trees Peppers molle Flora of Northwest Argentina Flora of Northeast Argentina Trees of Brazil Trees of Paraguay Trees of Peru Plants described in 1753 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus