Olea
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About 20; see text |
Olea is a genus of about 20 species in the family Oleaceae, native to warm temperate and tropical regions of southern Europe, Africa, southern Asia and Australasia. They are evergreen trees and shrubs, with small, opposite, entire leaves. The fruit is a drupe.
For humans, the most important species is by far the Olive (Olea europaea), native to the Mediterranean region. O. paniculata is a larger tree, attaining a height of 15-18 m in the forests of Queensland, and yielding a hard and tough timber. The yet harder wood of the Black Ironwood O. laurifolia, an inhabitant of Natal, is important in South Africa.
Olea species are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including Double-striped Pug.
- Selected species
- Olea brachiata
- Olea capensis (Small Ironwood)
- Olea caudatilimba
- Olea chryssophylla, a wild olive of Asia and Africa
- Olea europaea (Olive)
- Olea exasperata (Dune Olive)
- Olea guangxiensis
- Olea hainanensis
- Olea laurifolia (Black Ironwood)
- Olea laxiflora
- Olea neriifolia
- Olea oleaster, a wild olive whose cultivar "Olivastro" is used as rootstock for O. europaea; formerly classified as the subspecies O. europaea oleaster
- Olea paniculata
- Olea parvilimba
- Olea rosea
- Olea salicifolia
- Olea sylvestris, a small-fruited wild olive of the Mediterranean region, sometimes used as rootstock for O. europaea.
- Olea tetragonoclada
- Olea tsoongii
- Olea undulata
- Olea woodiana (Forest Olive)
