The Lucques is a

cultivar A cultivar is a kind of Horticulture, cultivated plant that people have selected for desired phenotypic trait, traits and which retains those traits when Plant propagation, propagated. Methods used to propagate cultivars include division, root a ...

olive The olive, botanical name ''Olea europaea'' ("European olive"), is a species of Subtropics, subtropical evergreen tree in the Family (biology), family Oleaceae. Originating in Anatolia, Asia Minor, it is abundant throughout the Mediterranean ...

s grown primarily in

Languedoc The Province of Languedoc (, , ; ) is a former province of France. Most of its territory is now contained in the modern-day region of Occitanie in Southern France. Its capital city was Toulouse. It had an area of approximately . History ...

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

. It is primarily used as a green table olive. It can also produce high quality

oil An oil is any nonpolar chemical substance that is composed primarily of hydrocarbons and is hydrophobic (does not mix with water) and lipophilic (mixes with other oils). Oils are usually flammable and surface active. Most oils are unsaturate ...

, but this is hard to extract. Though vulnerable to certain

pests PESTS was an anonymous American activist group formed in 1986 to critique racism, tokenism, and exclusion in the art world. PESTS produced newsletters, posters, and other print material highlighting examples of discrimination in gallery represent ...

, it is relatively resistant to cold and drought.

Extent

The Lucques owes its French name to the tradition that it originated in the Italian province of

Lucca Città di Lucca ( ; ) is a city and ''comune'' in Tuscany, Central Italy, on the Serchio River, in a fertile plain near the Ligurian Sea. The city has a population of about 89,000, while its Province of Lucca, province has a population of 383,9 ...

(''Lucques'' in French). Today it is primarily associated with southern

, particularly in the

Languedoc-Roussillon Languedoc-Roussillon (; ; ) is a former regions of France, administrative region of France. On 1 January 2016, it joined with the region of Midi-Pyrénées to become Occitania (administrative region), Occitania. It comprised five departments o ...

region and the

départements In the administrative divisions of France, the department (, ) is one of the three levels of government under the national level (" territorial collectivities"), between the administrative regions and the communes. There are a total of 101 ...

Aude Aude ( ; ) is a Departments of France, department in Southern France, located in the Occitania (administrative region), Occitanie Regions of France, region and named after the river Aude (river), Aude. The departmental council also calls it " ...

and

Hérault Hérault (; , ) is a departments of France, department of the Regions of France, region of Occitania (administrative region), Occitania, Southern France. Named after the Hérault (river), Hérault River, its Prefectures in France, prefecture is M ...

, to which its cultivation is limited in Europe by a

protected designation of origin The protected designation of origin (PDO) is a type of geographical indication of the European Union aimed at preserving the designations of origin of food-related products. The designation was created in 1992 and its main purpose is to designat ...

(PDO, or AOP in French) since 2017. It can also be found in

Northern Africa North Africa (sometimes Northern Africa) is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region. However, it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of t ...

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

, the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

and

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

.Ron Herbst, Sharon and Tyler Herbst,
The Deluxe Food Lover's Companion, 2nd edition
', Barron's Educational Series, 2015

Synonyms

Locally, this cultivar is known under a number of different names, including Lucquoise or Luquoise, Oliva Lucchese, Oliverolle, Olivier de Lucques, Olivier Odorant and Plant du Languedoc.

Characteristics

It is a cultivar of good strength, with a spreading

growth form Plant life-form schemes constitute a way of classifying plants alternatively to the ordinary species-genus-family scientific classification. In colloquial speech, plants may be classified as trees, shrubs, herbs (forbs and graminoids), etc. The sci ...

in a shape described as "a vase or a parasol". The

leaves A leaf (: leaves) is a principal appendage of the stem of a vascular plant, usually borne laterally above ground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", while the leaves, stem, ...

are elliptic-lanceolate, with a medium length and width. The olives are of medium to high weight. They have an elongated, asymmetrical shape, with a pointed apex and a truncated base. The stone is pointed at both ends, with few grooves and no

mucro The following terms are used to describe leaf plant morphology, morphology in the description and taxonomy (biology), taxonomy of plants. Leaves may be simple (that is, the leaf blade or 'lamina' is undivided) or compound (that is, the leaf blade ...

. Though the fruit comes into bearing early, its ripening is late. Picking is at the end of October or beginning of November, while the skin is a light green. It matures in December, and when fully mature the colour of the fruit is dark purple.

Processing

The Lucques is primarily used as a green table olive, and the fruit tastes meaty and sweet. Some compare it to fresh

almond The almond (''Prunus amygdalus'', Synonym (taxonomy)#Botany, syn. ''Prunus dulcis'') is a species of tree from the genus ''Prunus''. Along with the peach, it is classified in the subgenus ''Amygdalus'', distinguished from the other subgenera ...

s and

avocado The avocado, alligator pear or avocado pear (''Persea americana'') is an evergreen tree in the laurel family (Lauraceae). It is native to Americas, the Americas and was first domesticated in Mesoamerica more than 5,000 years ago. It was priz ...

s. It is a highly valued olive among gourmets. It can also be used for

, and the oil it produces is of excellent quality, but it is difficult to extract. It gives a medium oil yield. The smell of the oil has alternately been described as "almond", " green apple", and "

tomato The tomato (, ), ''Solanum lycopersicum'', is a plant whose fruit is an edible Berry (botany), berry that is eaten as a vegetable. The tomato is a member of the nightshade family that includes tobacco, potato, and chili peppers. It originate ...

". The taste is sweet; to some, excessively so.

Agronomy

It is considered a productive cultivar, but depends on good quality soil and regular irrigation to give a high yield. The cultivar is self-sterile, so it depends on other

pollinator A pollinator is an animal that moves pollen from the male anther of a flower to the female carpel, stigma of a flower. This helps to bring about fertilization of the ovules in the flower by the male gametes from the pollen grains. Insects are ...

s. It is vulnerable to certain

, including the

olive fruit fly The olive fruit fly (''Bactrocera oleae'') is a species of fruit fly which belongs to the subfamily Dacinae. It is a phytophagous species whose larvae feed on the fruit of olive trees, hence the common name. It is considered a serious pest in t ...

sooty mold Sooty mold (also spelled sooty mould) is a collective term for different Ascomycete fungi, which includes many genera, commonly ''Cladosporium'' and ''Alternaria''. It grows on plants and their fruit, but also environmental objects, like fences, ...

and ''

Verticillium dahliae ''Verticillium dahliae'' is a fungal plant pathogen. It causes verticillium wilt in many plant species, causing leaves to curl and discolor. It may cause death in some plants. Over 400 plant species are affected by ''Verticillium'' complex. M ...

''. On the other hand, it has a moderately good tolerance to cold and drought, although the tree suffered terribly in the cold winter of early 1956 when millions of trees were cut down all over the

Midi Musical Instrument Digital Interface (; MIDI) is an American-Japanese technical standard that describes a communication protocol, digital interface, and electrical connectors that connect a wide variety of electronic musical instruments, ...

References