How Old Can Olive Tree Live
There are olive groves planted by the ancient greeks that still flourishing now.
How old can olive tree live. Olive trees are ancient plants. Many of the oldest trees alive today are olive trees. Often the main trunk of the tree will die and become hollow but offshoots or sports will grow from the base of the main trunk and allow the plant to continue living even though the main trunk has died. 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.
They re hardy only in usda zones 8 and warmer and start to die when temperatures hit the mid teens. 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. Originating in asia minor most particularly iran and palestine the storied.
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. It still produces olives and they are highly prized. Not all of us can grow these trees for fruit or oil. Traditionally olive groves are handed down from father to son.
Olive is hardy in u s. One ancient tree in the french riviera is estimated to be about 2 200 years old. The trees can produce fruit for hundreds of years. Olive trees typically live to be greater than 1000 years old and some live to be greater than 1500.
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. Specimens exist today that have been pinpointed to at least 700 years of age. 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. The colony has been estimated to be 80 000 years old although tree ring samples date individual above ground trees at only an average of about 130 years.
More than likely your olive tree isn t 6 000 years old but that s how long the olive has been known to exist.