Plants of South Eastern New South Wales
Olea europaea
Common name
Common Olive.
African olive (subsp. cuspidata)
Olive, Common Olive (subsp. europea)
Family
Oleaceae
Where found
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.
Notes
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)
This identification key and fact sheets are available as a free mobile application:
