Plantae > Tracheophyta > Magnoliopsida > Lamiales > Oleaceae > Olea > Olea europaea

Olea europaea (olive)

Synonyms: Olea pallida; Olea sativa (heterotypic); Olea verrucosa var. brachybotrya

Wikipedia Abstract

The olive, known by the botanical name Olea europaea, meaning "european olive", is a species of small tree in the family Oleaceae, found in the Mediterranean Basin from Portugal to the Levant, the Arabian Peninsula, and southern Asia as far east as China, as well as the Canary Islands, Mauritius and Réunion. The species is cultivated in many places and considered naturalized in all the countries of the Mediterranean coast, as well as in Argentina, Saudi Arabia, Java, Norfolk Island, California and Bermuda.
View Wikipedia Record: Olea europaea

Infraspecies

Olea europaea cerasiformis
Olea europaea cuspidata (African olive) (Attributes)
Olea europaea europaea (European olive) (Attributes)
Olea europaea guanchica
Olea europaea laperrinei
Olea europaea maroccana

Invasive Species

View ISSG Record: Olea europaea

Attributes

Allergen Potential [1]  High
Dispersal Mode [5]  Zoochory
Edible [2]  May be edible. See the Plants For A Future link below for details.
Flower Type [2]  Hermaphrodite
Janka Hardness [3]  3180 lbf (1442 kgf) Very Hard
Leaf Type [2]  Evergreen
Lifespan [4]  Perennial
Pollinators [2]  Wind
Specific Gravity [6]  0.806
Structure [2]  Tree
Usage [2]  The non-drying oil obtained from the seed is also used for soap making, lighting and as a lubricant; The oil is a good hair tonic and dandruff treatment; Maroon and purple dyes are obtained from the whole fresh ripe fruits; Blue and black dyes are obtained from the skins of fresh ripe fruits; A yellow/green dye is obtained from the leaves; Plants are used to stabilize dry dusty hillsides; Wood - very hard, heavy, beautifully grained, takes a fine polish and is slightly fragrant. It is used in turnery and cabinet making, being much valued by woodworkers;
Height [2]  33 feet (10 m)
Width [2]  26 feet (8 m)
View Plants For A Future Record : Olea europaea

Protected Areas

Emblem of

Predators

Consumers

Parasitized by 
Hemicycliophora arenaria[17]

External References

USDA Plant Profile

NatureServe Explorer

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
♦ 1Derived from Allergy-Free Gardening OPALS™, Thomas Leo Ogren (2000)
♦ 2Plants For A Future licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
♦ 3Wood Janka Hardness Scale/Chart J W Morlan's Unique Wood Gifts
♦ 4USDA Plants Database, U. S. Department of Agriculture
♦ 5Paula S, Arianoutsou M, Kazanis D, Tavsanoglu Ç, Lloret F, Buhk C, Ojeda F, Luna B, Moreno JM, Rodrigo A, Espelta JM, Palacio S, Fernández-Santos B, Fernandes PM, and Pausas JG. 2009. Fire-related traits for plant species of the Mediterranean Basin. Ecology 90: 1420.
Paula S. & Pausas J.G. 2013. BROT: a plant trait database for Mediterranean Basin species. Version 2013.06.
♦ 6Chave J, Coomes D, Jansen S, Lewis SL, Swenson NG, Zanne AE (2009) Towards a worldwide wood economics spectrum. Ecology Letters 12: 351-366. Zanne AE, Lopez-Gonzalez G, Coomes DA, Ilic J, Jansen S, Lewis SL, Miller RB, Swenson NG, Wiemann MC, Chave J (2009) Data from: Towards a worldwide wood economics spectrum. Dryad Digital Repository.
♦ 7Biological Records Centre Database of Insects and their Food Plants
♦ 8Ben-Dov, Y., Miller, D.R. & Gibson, G.A.P. ScaleNet 4 November 2009
♦ 9Jorrit H. Poelen, James D. Simons and Chris J. Mungall. (2014). Global Biotic Interactions: An open infrastructure to share and analyze species-interaction datasets. Ecological Informatics.
♦ 10HOSTS - a Database of the World's Lepidopteran Hostplants Gaden S. Robinson, Phillip R. Ackery, Ian J. Kitching, George W. Beccaloni AND Luis M. Hernández
♦ 11Norrbom, A.L. 2004. Fruit fly (Tephritidae) host plant database. Version Nov, 2004.
♦ 12Bactrocera oleae (Rossi) (Insecta: Diptera: Tephritidae), Morgan A. Byron and Jennifer L. Gillett-Kaufman, University of Florida, January 2016
♦ 13del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., Sargatal, J., Christie, D.A. & de Juana, E. (eds.). Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona.
♦ 14A STUDY OF AVIAN FRUGIVORES, BIRD-DISPERSED PLANTS, AND THElR INTERACTION IN MEDITERRANEAN SCRUBLANDS, CARLOS M. HERRERA, Ecological Monographs, 54(1), 1984, pp. 1-23
♦ 15DIET, FRUIT CHOICE AND VARIATION IN BODY CONDITION OF FRUGIVOROUS WARBLERS IN MEDITERRANEAN SCRUBLAND, PEDRO JORDANO, Ardea 76 (1988): 193-209
♦ 16Frugivory, external morphology and digestive system in Mediterranean sylviid warblers Sylvia spp., Pedro Jordano, IBIS 129: 175-189 (1987)
♦ 17Species Interactions of Australia Database, Atlas of Living Australia, Version ala-csv-2012-11-19
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0