Olive
Olea europaea
Olive,Common Olive,Cultivated Olive,Edible Olive,European Olive,Lady's Oil,Olive Oil Plant,Sweet Oil Plant,Olivo,aceituno.
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Description
19th-century illustrations The olive tree, Olea europaea, is an evergreen tree or shrub native to the Mediterranean, Asia, and Africa. It is short and squat, and rarely exceeds 8–15 m (26–49 ft) in height. 'Pisciottana', a unique variety comprising 40,000 trees found only in the area around Pisciotta in the Campania region of southern Italy often exceeds this, with correspondingly large trunk diameters. The silvery green leaves are oblong, measuring 4–10 cm (1.6–3.9 in) long and 1–3 cm (0.39–1.18 in) wide. The trunk is typically gnarled and twisted.The small, white, feathery flowers, with ten-cleft calyx and corolla, two stamens, and bifid stigma, are borne generally on the previous year's wood, in racemes springing from the axils of the leaves. The fruit is a small drupe 1–2.5 cm (0.39–0.98 in) long, thinner-fleshed and smaller in wild plants than in orchard cultivars. Olives are harvested in the green to purple stage. Canned black olives have often been artificially blackened (see below on processing) and may contain the chemical ferrous gluconate to improve the appearance. Olea europaea contains a seed commonly referred to in American English as a pit, and in British English as a stone.
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Taxonomy
Order
Scrophulariales
Family
Oleaceae
Genus
Olea
Characteristics
Bloom Time
Summer
Plant Type
Trees, Tree, Shrub or tree.
Lifespan
Woody
Flower
2 inches long panicles of small white fragrant, feathery flowers in summer.
Fruit
1.5-inch oval fleshy green to purple drupe with one seed.
How to Grow
Water
Low
Sunlight
Full Sun, Full sun (6 or more hours of direct sunlight a day)