Plants of South Eastern New South Wales
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Olea europaea
Common Olive.
African olive (subsp. cuspidata)
Olive, Common Olive (subsp. europea)
Oleaceae
Forest, woodland, grassy areas, disturbed sites, roadsides, and stream banks.
subsp. cuspidata: Coast. Sydney area and Blue Mountains. ACT. Occasionally elsewhere.
subsp. europaea: Mainly Sydney area and Wagga Wagga. Occasionally elsewhere.
Introduced shrub or tree to 15 m high. Fruit fleshy. Bark brownish grey, rough. Young stems ribbed, densely covered with copper-coloured scales, the scales becoming scattered or absent with age. Leaves opposite each other, 3–10 cm long, 8–25 mm wide, upper surface hairless, green to grey-green and glossy, lower surface silvery, whitish, greenish or yellowish-brown, margins often turned down. Flowers greenish white or cream, tubular, the tube 1–2 mm long, with 4 lobes each about 3 mm long, more or less turned back when the flowers are fully open. Flowers in branched clusters, the branches 4–6 cm long. Flowering: usually spring. Fruit purple to black when ripe, glaucous, more or less round to oval, 8–30 mm long, 6-20 mm wide.
subsp. cuspidata: Leaves mostly 6–10 cm long, 10–40 mm wide, often with hooked tips, lower surface greenish, or yellowish brown. Fruit 8-15 mm long.
General Biosecurity Duty all NSW. General Biosecurity Duty with additional restrictions in the NSW Central Tablelands and Greater Sydney areas.
subsp. europaea: Leaves mostly 3–7 cm long, 8–10 mm wide, tips without a hooked tip, lower surface whitish or silvery with a dense covering of silver scales. Fruit 15-25 mm long.
General Biosecurity Duty all NSW.
PlantNET description of species and key to subspecies: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Olea~europaea (accessed 8 April 2021)
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