How Long Can Olive Tree Live
One particular specimen in brijuni national park croatia has apparently been carbon dated to over 1600 years.
How long can olive tree live. Pisciottana a unique variety comprising 40 000 trees found only in the area around pisciotta in the campania region of southern italy often exceeds this with correspondingly large trunk diameters. As long as there is a sufficiently large pot the tree can live up to eight or nine years in it. Although its exact age cannot be verified the olive tree of vouves might be the oldest among them estimated at over 3 000 years old. The olive tree olea europaea is an evergreen tree or shrub native to the mediterranean asia and africa it is short and squat and rarely exceeds 8 15 m 26 49 ft in height.
In ancient days olive trees were grown in the holy land and in other warm dry countries around the mediterranean sea. Olive trees can live for thou sands of years. Its wide and stubby trunk is gnarled with grooves and twisted ridges. Olive trees from the genus olea can live for over a thousand years provided that their environment is stable.
It has proven difficult to date most olive trees accurately because the people who live with the oldest ones come to love and honor them and are unwilling to expose them to the dangers that come with taking a core sample. There are olive groves planted by the ancient greeks that still flourishing now. Not all of us can grow these trees for fruit or oil. Specimens exist today that have been pinpointed to at least 700 years of age.
They re hardy only in usda zones 8 and warmer and start to die when temperatures hit the mid teens. How do olive tree live up to 5000 years. The olive tree of vou ves in the vil lage of ano vou ves in crete greece. Archeologists who have found olive pits and traces of olive oil in pottery shards estimate we ve been cultivating them for 6 000 to 8 000 years.
Sci en tists from the uni ver sity of crete have esti mated it to be 4 000 years old. So know the significance of planting olive trees in a pot. Slender branches with dainty leaves of silvery green grow near the top of the trunk. Many of the oldest trees alive today are olive trees.
When grown under the proper conditions and in the right climate you can safely expect your olive to live for several hundred years and possibly more.