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Black Ironwood

Olea capensis

Also called False Ironwood, Small Ironwood

Black Ironwood
Photo: Abu Shawka, Public domain

Olea capensis, the black ironwood, is a bushy shrub or small tree from sub-Saharan Africa and Madagascar, and the species is often grown as an ornamental or landscape tree in warm climates. It tolerates a range of conditions once established, with good drainage and sun being the main keys.

Family
Oleaceae (Olive family)
Grows as
Tree, Shrub
Light
Full sun, Part shade
Water
Water regularly while young, then allow the top of the soil to dry between waterings; it is fairly drought tolerant once established.
Soil
Well-drained soil or loam, tolerant of poor and sandy soils.
Temperature
15–30 °C; protect below about 5 °C.
How easy
Easy
Native range
Trop. & S. Africa, Comoros, Madagascar
Climate
subtropical

About

Olea capensis, the black ironwood, is an African tree species in the olive family Oleaceae. It is widespread in sub-Saharan Africa: from the east in Somalia, Ethiopia and Sudan, south to the tip of South Africa, and west to Cameroon, Sierra Leone and the islands of the Gulf of Guinea, as well as Madagascar and the Comoros. It occurs in bush, littoral scrub and evergreen forest.

Other common names in English include ironwood, ironwood olive, East African olive and Elgon olive.

Other Olea plants

Olive tree

Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Olea capensis by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.

The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.

Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.

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