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Olive tree

Olea europaea

Also called Olive, Oliveleaf, Small Fruit Olive, African Olive, European Olive, Wild Olive

Olea europaea is a long-lived evergreen tree (the cultivated olive and its relatives) grown for its fruit and oil. It thrives in full sun, warm dry summers and well-drained soil, and is grown mainly outdoors in Mediterranean-type climates.

Family

Oleaceae (Olive family)

Grows as

Tree

Light

Full sun

Water

Water deeply but infrequently, letting the top few centimetres of soil dry between waterings; established trees tolerate drought.

Soil

Well-drained, sandy or gritty soil; tolerates poor and alkaline soils.

Temperature

15–30 °C; tolerates brief frosts to about -10 °C when mature, protect young plants below -5 °C

How easy

Moderate

Safety

Not known to be toxic

Native range

Africa, Medit. to SC. China

Climate

subtropical

Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Olea europaea 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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