Olive Seed Olea europaea

LATIN NAME: Olea europaea

COMMON NAME: Olive

The olive is the silver tree of the dry hills, and the small, white flowers hide among the narrow, grey-green leaves. The slow-growing, evergreen tree carries the narrow, grey-green leaves with the silvery undersides and the small, white flowers in the loose clusters through the late spring, to be followed by the round to oval, green fruits that ripen through the purple-black. The fruits have a very long record as the oil and the table fruit of the old world, and the tree is a fine, historic presence of the warm garden and the courtyard. It is a tree of the open, sunny, deep, very well-drained ground.

Scientific Research & Plant Biotechnology

The olive is a historic subject of the plant science, and the silver leaves keep showing up in the work on the oil-fruit trees. The chemistry of the fruits and the oil, which have fed the old world for thousands of years, has been studied at length, and it keeps appearing in the studies of the olive oil chemistry, the Mediterranean fruit trees and the members of the olive family. The narrow, grey-green leaves and the slow, gnarled habit have also made it a fine study tree, and the olive is a regular subject of the work on the historic oil trees of the warm world.

Ecological & Economic Value & Wide Applications

The olive is a fine, historic tree of the dry hills and the warm garden. The fruits have a very long record as the oil and the table fruit of the old world, pressed into the green-gold oil of the kitchen and cured into the olives of the table, one of the fine, steady crops of the dry regions. The silver tree stands the drought and the poor, stony ground with the ease, and it is one of the fine choices for the warm garden, the courtyard, the pot and the dryland planting. It has been written up in the culinary and the agricultural papers for the silver leaves and the very long history of the oil, and it is a fine, long-lived tree of the open, sunny, deep, very well-drained garden.

The olive is one of the historic oil trees of the old world, and the silver leaves stand the drought with the ease. The fruits press into the green-gold oil of the kitchen.

To grow the olive from seed, sow the small, oval seeds a little below the surface of a tray of sterile, free-draining soil, keep the tray in a warm, bright spot and water gently, then set the young plants out after the last frosts. The seedlings push through within a few weeks and grow on slowly but steadily. With the sun, the warmth and the very well-drained ground, the silver tree will come into its own in the years ahead.

Olea europaea and European Olive. It is a visually striking tree with dark green leaves and produces little or no olives. These trees are very forgiving as they need very little care or water and are popular with those who don't want to devote a lot of time to looking after a tree