Olea europaea, L.

Tutin, T. G., Heywood, V. H., Burges, N. A., Moore, D. M., Valentine, D. H., Walters, S. M. & Webb, D. A., 1972, Flora Europaea. Volume 3. Diapensiacea to Myoporaceae, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press : 55

1. O. europaea L. , Sp. Pl. 8 (1753).

Tree up to 15 m, with a broad crown and a thick trunk, sometimes a shrub; bark grey, finely fissured; twigs lepidote, grey; buds very small, lepidotesericeous, greyish. Leaves (10-)20-80 x (3-)5-15(-20) mm, subsessile, mucronate, dark greyish-green and glabrous above, light grey and densely lepidote beneath. Panicles axillary. Corolla white. Drupe 10-35 x 6-20 mm, ellipsoid to subglobose, green when unripe, becoming black, brownish-green or rarely ivorywhite. In = 46. Woods and scrub in dry rocky places; commonly cultivated for its fruit. Mediterranean region, Portugal, Krym. Al BI Co Cr Ga Gr Hs It Ju Lu Rs (K) Sa Si Tu [He].

Var. europaea is the cultivated olive. Many cultivars have been selected for their edible fruit, which is an important source of oil. Wild plants ( var. sylvestris Brot. ) differ from the cultivars mainly in the spiny lower branches and small leaves and drupes.