The cultivated olive (botanical name Olea europaea subsp. europaea) is a subspecies of subtropical evergreen tree in the family Oleaceae. Modern cultivars are traced primarily to the Near East, Aegean Sea, and Strait of Gibraltar. Olea europaea is the type species for its genus, Olea, which lends its name to the Oleaceae plant family. The olive fruit is classed botanically as a drupe, similar in structure and function to the cherry or peach. The term oil was originally synonymous with olive oil. The olive has deep historical, economic, and cultural significance in the Mediterranean. It was one of the first fruit trees to be domesticated, being first cultivated in the Eastern Mediterranean between 6,000 and 4,000 BC. It gradually spread around the Mediterranean Basin via trade and human migration. Olive cultivation was vital to the growth and prosperity of several Mediterranean civilisations. The fruit is eaten as table olives; the oil extracted from the fruit is used in food and formerly for lamp fuel; and the wood is used for decorative objects. The olive branch is a symbol of peace. The olive is a core ingredient in 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 throughout the Mediterranean Basin, and in other regions with a suitable climate. Spain, Italy, and Greece lead the world in commercial olive production. There are many cultivars, some used primarily for oil, others for eating. Approximately 80% of all harvested olives are processed into oil, with the rest cured and fermented as table olives.
Etymology
The word olive derives from Latin ŏlīva 'olive fruit; olive tree', from the archaic Proto-Greek form *ἐλαίϝα (*elaíwa) (Classic Greek ἐλαία elaía 'olive fruit; olive tree'). The word oil originally meant 'olive oil', from ŏlĕum, ἔλαιον (élaion 'olive oil'). The word for 'oil' in multiple other languages ultimately derives from the name of this tree and its fruit. The oldest attested forms of the Greek words are Mycenaean 𐀁𐀨𐀷, e-ra-wa, and 𐀁𐀨𐀺, e-ra-wo or 𐀁𐁉𐀺, e-rai-wo, written in the Linear B syllabic script.
Description The olive tree, Olea europaea, is an evergreen tree that grows in a Mediterranean climate. Its trunk is typically gnarled and twisted. It grows to some 10 m (35 ft) in height, with grey bark. The leaves are oblong, grey-green above and whitish below. Small, white flowers are borne generally on the previous year's wood, in erect racemes springing from leaf axils. Each flower has four yellowish white petals fused at the bottom and joined to a base of four fused green sepals. The flower buds grow slowly for 4 to 6 weeks until they reach a length of about 2 cm and bloom; blooming lasts 5–6 days in hot weather and 2 weeks in colder areas. The fruit is a small drupe, 1–2.5 cm (3⁄8–1 in) 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 called in British English a "stone", and in American English a "pit".
History
As one of the oldest cultivated fruit trees on Earth, the history of the olive is deeply intertwined with humans; its ecological success and expansion is largely the result of human activity rather than environmental conditions, with the tree's genetic and geographic trajectory directly reflecting the rise and fall of several civilisations. Owing to this relationship with humans, the olive has been disseminated well beyond its native range, spanning 28.6 million acres across 66 countries. Fossil evidence indicates that the olive tree had its origins 20–40 million years ago in the Oligocene, in what now corresponds to Italy and the eastern Mediterranean Basin. Around 100,000 years ago, olives were used by humans in Africa, on the Atlantic coast of Morocco, for fuel and most probably for consumption. The olive was first cultivated in the Mediterranean between 8,000 and 6,000 years ago. Spanish colonists brought the olive to the New World in the 18th century. Olive trees were introduced to Japan in 1908 on Shodo Island in the Seto Inland Sea. The island accounts for over 95% of Japan's olive production. Fifty-eight countries across five continents produce olive oil.
Cultivation
Olives are cultivated in the Mediterranean basin, and some countries with non-Mediterranean climates such as Argentina, Australia, Chile, and Peru.
Growth and propagation
Olive trees show a marked preference for calcareous soils, flourishing best on limestone slopes and crags, and in coastal climates. They grow in any light soil, even on clay if well drained, but in rich soils, they are predisposed to disease and produce poor quality oil, as noted by Pliny the Elder. Olives like hot weather and sunny positions without any shade, while temperatures below −10 °C (14 °F) may injure even a mature tree. They tolerate drought well because of their sturdy and extensive root systems. Olive trees can remain productive for centuries as long as they are pruned correctly and regularly. Olives are propagated by various methods, especially by cuttings and layering; the tree roots easily in favourable soil and throws up suckers from the stump when cut down. Trees can also be grown from seed. However, yields from trees grown from suckers or seeds are poor; they have to be budded or grafted to do well. To facilitate germination, the oily pericarp is softened by slight rotting, or soaked in hot water or in an alkaline solution. Where extreme cold has damaged or killed the above-ground parts of the tree, the rootstock can survive and produce new shoots which in turn become new trees. In this way, olive trees can regenerate themselves. In Tuscany in 1985, a severe frost destroyed many productive and aged olive trees and ruined farmers' livelihoods; recovery was expected to take four or five years.
Cultivars
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