‘Golden Hills’ Pistachio

‘Golden Hills’ is a new female pistachio ( Pistacia vera L.) cultivar released by the California Agricultural Experiment Station in 2005. The nuts mature uniformly and are harvested 2–4 weeks earlier than ‘Kerman’. In-shell nut yields in the first 4 years are equal to those of ‘Kerman’, but the percentage of edible split nuts is higher. ‘Golden Hills’ flowers earlier than ‘Kerman’ and has not demonstrated symptoms of insufficient chilling in Kern Co. or in Madera Co., Calif. It appears to be a good early maturing cultivar, with uniform harvest period and little navel orangeworm infestation.