olive tree

The olive, botanical name ''Olea europaea'' ("European olive"), is a species of subtropical evergreen tree in the family Oleaceae. Originating in Asia Minor, it is abundant throughout the Mediterranean Basin, with wild subspecies in Africa and western Asia; modern cultivars are traced primarily to the Near East, Aegean Sea, and Strait of Gibraltar. The olive is the type species for its genus, ''Olea'', and lends its name to the Oleaceae plant family, which includes species such as lilac, jasmine, forsythia, and ash. The olive fruit is classed botanically as a drupe, similar to the cherry or peach. The term oil—now used to describe any viscous water-insoluble liquid—was virtually synonymous with olive oil, the liquid fat made from olives.

The olive has deep historical, economic, and cultural significance in the Mediterranean; Georges Duhamel remarked that the "Mediterranean ends where the olive tree no longer grows". Among the oldest fruit trees domesticated by humans, the olive was first cultivated in the Eastern Mediterranean between 8,000 and 6,000 years ago, most likely in the Levant. It gradually disseminated throughout the Mediterranean via trade and human migration starting in the 16th century BC; the olive took root in Crete around 3500 BC and reached Iberia by about 1050 BC. Olive cultivation was vital to the growth and prosperity of various Mediterranean civilizations, from the Minoans and Myceneans of the Bronze Age to the Greeks and Romans of classical antiquity.

The olive has long been prized throughout the Mediterranean for its myriad uses and properties. Aside from its edible fruit, the extracted oil was used for lamp fuel, personal grooming, cosmetics, soap, lubrication, and medicine; its wood was sometimes used for construction. Owing to its utility, resilience, and longevity—which can allegedly reach thousands of years—the olive also held symbolic and spiritual importance in various cultures; it was used in religious rituals, funerary processions, and public ceremonies, from the ancient Olympic games to the coronation of Israelite kings. Ancient Greeks regarded the olive tree as sacred and a symbol of peace, prosperity, and wisdom—associations that persist to this day. The olive is a core ingredient in traditional Middle Eastern and Mediterranean cuisines, particularly in the form of olive oil, and a defining feature of local landscapes, commerce, and folk traditions.

The olive is cultivated in all countries of the Mediterranean, as well as in Australia, New Zealand, the Americas, and South Africa. Spain, Italy, and Greece lead the world in commercial olive production; other major producers are Turkey, Tunisia, Syria, Morocco, Algeria, and Portugal. There are thousands of cultivars of the olive tree, which may be used primarily for oil, eating, or both; some varieties are grown as ornamental sterile shrubs, known as ''Olea europaea'' ''Montra'', ''dwarf olive'', or ''little olive''. Approximately 80% of all harvested olives are processed into oil, while about 20% are used for consumption, generally referred to as "table olives".

Etymology

The word ''olive'' derives from Latin ' 'olive fruit; olive tree', possibly through Etruscan 𐌀𐌅𐌉𐌄𐌋𐌄 (''eleiva'') from the archaic Proto-Greek form *ἐλαίϝα (*''elaíwa'') ( Classic Greek ' 'olive fruit; olive tree'). The word ''oil'' originally meant 'olive oil', from ', (' 'olive oil'). The word for 'oil' in multiple other languages also ultimately derives from the name of this tree and its fruit. The oldest attested forms of the Greek words are Mycenaean , ', and , ' or , ', written in the Linear B syllabic script.

Description

The olive tree, ''Olea europaea'', is an evergreen tree or shrub native to Mediterranean Europe, Asia, and Africa. It is short and squat and rarely exceeds 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 long and 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, long when ripe, thinner-fleshed and smaller in wild plants than in orchard cultivars. Olives are harvested in the green to purple stage. ''O. europaea'' contains a pyrena commonly referred to in American English as a "pit", and in British English as a "stone".

Taxonomy

The six natural subspecies of ''Olea europaea'' are distributed over a wide range:

*''O. e.'' subsp. ''europaea'' (Mediterranean Basin)

The subspecies ''europaea'' is divided into two varieties, the ''europaea'', which was formerly named ''Olea sativa'', with the seedlings called "olivasters", and ''silvestris'', which corresponds to the old wildly growing Mediterranean species '' O. oleaster'', with the seedlings called "oleasters". The ''sylvestris'' is characterized by a smaller, shrubby tree that produces smaller fruits and leaves.

* ''O. e.'' subsp. ''cuspidata'' (from South Africa throughout East Africa, Arabia to Southwest China)
*''O. e.'' subsp. ''cerasiformis'' (Madeira); also known as ''Olea maderensis''
*''O. e.'' subsp. ''guanchica'' (Canary Islands)
*''O. e.'' subsp. ''laperrinei'' (Algeria, Sudan, Niger)
*''O. e.'' subsp. ''maroccana'' (Morocco)

The subspecies ''O. e. cerasiformis'' is tetraploid, and ''O. e. maroccana'' is hexaploid. Wild-growing forms of the olive are sometimes treated as the species ''Olea oleaster

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