Olea europaea subsp. africana

The wild olive, African olive, in Afrikaans olienhout or just olien (SA Tree List No. 617), reaches heights from 3 m to 14 m in the diverse conditions of its southern African habitat. The tree grows throughout South Africa, except for small areas in the northwest of the country and the east of the Kruger National Park. This species is also well represented in Africa, the Middle East and Asia, including India and China.

Around the Mediterranean the wild olive is less prominent than the olive tree, its commercial relative. In that region the olive has played an important part in human diet since antiquity. Olive tree numbers reach more than 500 million planted in Spain alone, when price and the European Union quotas do not cause grove destruction in favour of alternative crops.

This olien was photographed in the Willem Pretorius Game Reserve on a rocky outcrop of the grassland. It is a hardy tree, cherished in many South African parks and gardens. Apart from an attractive appearance, it is favoured for cultivation due to low water needs. It does, however, flourish near watercourses where growth may be faster than its typical slow rate. The olien is impervious to temperature extremes and will perform in a variety of soil types (Coates Palgrave, 2002; www.plantzafrica.com; Wikipedia).