Olea
Sign in to saveOlea ( ) is a genus of flowering plants in the family Oleaceae. It includes 30-40 species native to warm temperate and tropical regions of the Middle East, southern Europe, Africa, southern Asia, and Australasia. They are evergreen trees and shrubs, with small, opposite, entire leaves. The fruit is a drupe. Leaves of Olea contain trichosclereids.
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Olea is a genus of evergreen trees and shrubs found in warm regions across the Middle East, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australasia, containing 30-40 species with small opposite leaves and fleshy fruits. It matters because it represents an important group of flowering plants in the Oleaceae family that are widely distributed across multiple continents and climates.
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Wikidata facts
Show 6 more facts
- P105
- genus
- P427
- Olea europaea
- P910
- Category:Olea
- P4000
- drupe
- P11220
- blue
Article
5 sectionsContents
- Species
- Formerly placed here
- Description
- Taxonomy
- References
Olea ( ) is a genus of flowering plants in the family Oleaceae. It includes 30-40 species native to warm temperate and tropical regions of the Middle East, southern Europe, Africa, southern Asia, and Australasia. They are evergreen trees and shrubs, with small, opposite, entire leaves. The fruit is a drupe. Leaves of Olea contain trichosclereids.
For humans, the most important and familiar species is by far the olive (Olea europaea), native to the Mediterranean region, Africa, southwest Asia, and the Himalayas, which is the type species of the genus. The native olive (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. capensis, an inhabitant of Natal, is important in South Africa.