Common Name:
Olive
A genus of some 20 species of long-lived evergreen trees and shrubs. Stems may be smooth, rough or spiny, and vary from golden-glabrous to silvery gray, initially very pliable, then firm and rigid, with advanced age they become gray-black and contorted. Leaves are opposite, usually with an entire margin but occasionally toothed or lobed, often gray to dark green, paler below and often glandular and silvery. The flowers are inconspicuous, white or off-white, and in terminal or axillary clusters (panicles). Fruit is ovoid or globose with a single ellipsoid stone, to about 1.5 cm long. Native to warm temperate and tropical regions of Europe, Africa, Asia and Oceania.
Olea: Latin name for the tree
Pronunciation:
O-lee-ah
Family:
Oleaceae