martes, 2 de junio de 2009

GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE OLIVE TREE

Perennial tree of the Olive family oleaceae. Scientific name(Olea Europea L.), very long-lived. Is a tree with broad glass and thickness trunk and, often, very short. It can grow up to 15 meters of height. His stem branches are greyish when it is young and get dark when it grows. With many protuberances and fissures in its bark that disintegrates in the sape of plates.
Opposite leaves, from 2 to 8 centimeters of length, lanceolate, cariaceus, informs, green brilliant by bundle, whitish and scaly whitish and scaly by back and of very short petiole. The function of the dense scaly whitish cap that covers them, is to protect them from the winter cold and the summer hot.


The flowers are bisexual or polygamous, with white corolla, very small and are assembled in inflorescences. They present four petals of whitish color anda a strong fragrance. The fruit, the olive, is a succulent and very oily drupe foodstaffs, in which inside appears an only bone. An olive could be from 1 to 3,5 cm of length, ovoid. Initially they are of green color, but when they mature they become black. It is necessary one year to reach the black - purple color.


The "acebuche", is a wild olive tree that differs from the species cultivated by his aspect, by the presence of thorns in his branches, for his leaves and his smaller fruits.