The Olive (Olea europaea) is a species of small tree.  Native to coastal areas of the eastern Mediterranean.  Its use as a major agricultural product in pre-classical Greece led to its wider distribution throughout the western Mediterranean. Olive trees show a marked preference for calcareous soils, flourishing best on limestone slopes and crags, and coastal climate conditions.

The fruit of this plant is initially inedible, and must be treated before it can be eaten. It may be processed either while unripe, to produce "green olives", as with the martini olives stuffed with pimento, or when ripe, to produce "black olives", as are used on pizza, some Mexican food, and Mediterranean-style salads.

The Wild Olive is a small, straggly tree or shrub which can grow to 8-15 m tall with thorny branches. The leaves are opposite, oblong pointed, 4-10 cm long and 1-3 cm broad, dark grayish-green above and pale with whitish scales below.

The olive is one of the earliest plants cited in recorded literature. In Homer's Odyssey, Odysseus crawls beneath two shoots of olive that grow from a single stock.  Horace mentions it in reference to his own diet, which he describes as very simple: "Me pascunt olivae, me cichorea, me malvae" ("As for me, olives, endives, and mallows provide sustenance."). Pliny the Elder told of a sacred greek olive tree that was 1600 years old, while others claim that some of the specimens in the Garden of Gethsemane date back to the time of Jesus. Some Italian olive trees have been credited with an antiquity reaching back to the Roman empire, but the age of such ancient trees is doubtful during growth, and their identity with old descriptions still more difficult to establish.  Lord Monboddo comments on the olive in 1779 as one of the foods preferred by the ancients and as one of the most perfect foods.

Product SKU: C 109