Olea Explained

Olea (^[1]) is a genus of flowering plants in the family Oleaceae. It includes 12 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.^[2]

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,^{[3] [4]} 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.

Olea species are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including double-striped pug.

Species

12 species are currently accepted:

1. Olea capensis L. – Small Ironwood – Comoros, Madagascar; Africa from South Africa north to Ethiopia, Sudan, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, etc.
2. Olea capitellata Ridl. – Pahang
3. Olea chimanimani Kupicha – Chimanimani Mountains of Mozambique and Zimbabwe
4. Olea europaea L. – Olive – Mediterranean, Africa, southwestern Asia, Himalayas; naturalized many other places
5. Olea exasperata Jacq. – South Africa
6. Olea lancea Lam. – Madagascar, Mauritius, Réunion, Rodrigues Island
7. Olea luzonica Kiew – Philippines (Luzon)
8. Olea paniculata R.Br. – Yunnan, India, Indochina, Indonesia, Kashmir, Malaysia, Nepal, New Guinea, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Australia, New Caledonia, Vanuatu
9. Olea puberula Ridl. – Peninsular Malaysia
10. Olea schliebenii Knobl. – Tanzania
11. Olea welwitschii (Knobl.) Gilg & G.Schellenb. – central and eastern Africa from Ethiopia to Zimbabwe
12. Olea woodiana Knobl. – South Africa, Eswatini, Kenya, Tanzania

Formerly placed here

• Chionanthus foveolatus (E.Mey.) Stearn (as O. foveolata E.Mey.)
• Ligustrum compactum var. compactum (as O. compacta Wall. ex G.Don)
• Nestegis cunninghamii (Hook.f.) L.A.S.Johnson (as O. cunninghamii Hook.f.)
• Noronhia emarginata (Lam.) Thouars (as O. emarginata Lam.)
• Osmanthus americanus (L.) Benth. & Hook.f. ex A.Gray (as O. americana L.)
• Osmanthus heterophyllus (G. Don) P.S.Green (as O. aquifolium Siebold & Zucc. or O. ilicifolia Siebold ex Hassk.)
• Tetrapilus borneensis (as Olea borneensis Boerl.)
• Tetrapilus brachiatus (as Olea brachiata (Lour.) Merr.)
• Tetrapilus rubrovenius (as Olea rubrovenia (Elmer) Kiew)
• Tetrapilus tsoongii (as Olea tsoongii (Merr.) P.S.Green and Olea yuennanensis Hand.-Mazz.)

List source :^[5]

Notes and References

1. Book: Sunset Western Garden Book. 1995. 606–607.
2. http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=2&taxon_id=122774 Flora of China v 15 p 295, 木犀榄属 mu xi lan shu, Olea Linnaeus, Sp. Pl. 1: 7. 1753.
3. http://apps.kew.org/wcsp/namedetail.do?name_id=355112 Kew World Checklist of Selected Plant Families, Olea europaea L.
4. http://luirig.altervista.org/flora/taxa/index1.php?scientific-name=olea+europaea Altevista Flora Italiana, Oleastro, Olea europaea L.
5. Web site: Species in GRIN for genus Olea . GRIN . Taxonomy for Plants . USDA, ARS, National Genetic Resources Program . National Germplasm Resources Laboratory, Beltsville, Maryland . May 20, 2011 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20150924124109/http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/html/splist.pl?8414 . September 24, 2015 .