Olive Tree - Olea europaea

Dating back to ancient times, one could say to the flood, the presence of the Olea europea, simply called the olive tree, is inseparable from the Mediterranean landscape. It is a beautiful small shade tree, with a sturdy and knotty trunk as it ages, covered with evergreen foliage, rustling in the wind, grey-green, with a silver underside. It bears fruit after ten years, in the form of inedible black olives. It is undemanding in terms of soil type, it is drought-resistant and somewhat frost-sensitive.

Olea europea or the common olive tree belongs to the Oleaceae family, it is the most represented species within this family which has nearly 25 species in total, all showing exceptional longevity. This small evergreen tree reaches about 9 m (29ft) in height, after many years of cultivation. But in its young age, its growth is rapid, and it starts bearing fruit around 10 years. Its picturesque habit can take on many whimsical silhouettes: spreading branches, single or multiple trunks, creviced and rough bark with multiple scars left by time. Its foliage, evergreen, is composed of opposite, entire and elliptical leaves, leathery and sprinkled with scale-like hairs, more or less narrow, 3 to 9 cm (1 to 4in) long. They cover branches dotted with peltate scales. Their colour is a mix of green and grey, with the underside of the leaves being downy and silver. The very brief flowering takes place for a week at the end of spring. The flowers, white or yellow, are grouped in axillary panicles. The fruits, olives, are fleshy drupes with a hard stone, ranging from 5 mm (0.3in) to 4 cm (2in) long, green and then black at ripeness. Its bark, grey and smooth when young, cracks with age, while the tree emits shoots at the base of the trunk.

The common olive tree is perfectly adapted to the Mediterranean climate, but its distribution range extends northward depending on summer rainfall, which seems to be, more than the cold, a determining factor. This tree can withstand moderate frost of around -8 to -10°C (17.6 to 14°F), in well-drained soil once well established, but it needs drought in summer to properly ripen its wood. It can be used as a standalone tree, with the base adorned with daylilies, agapanthus, or iris, santolines, pittosporums, lonicera nitida, or covered with a climbing rose 'Senateur Lafolette', or planted in a windbreak hedge with laurels, bay laurel, evergreen oaks and myrtles. In colder areas, it is better cultivated in the company of Oleanders, in large containers, which can be sheltered in winter.