olea

{{Short description|Genus of flowering plants}}

{{About|genus of plant|the genus of gastropods|Olea (gastropod)|people with the given name or surname|Olea (name)}}

{{Automatic taxobox

|image = Olive-tree-fruit-august-0.jpg

|image_caption = Olea europaea (Olive), Lisbon, Portugal

|display_parents = 2

|taxon = Olea

|authority = L. (1753) {{ cite web |url=http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/html/genus.pl?8414 |title=Olea information from NPGS/GRIN |author=GRIN |work=Taxonomy for Plants |publisher=USDA, ARS, National Genetic Resources Program |location=National Germplasm Resources Laboratory, Beltsville, Maryland |date=April 4, 2006 |access-date=May 20, 2011 |author-link=Germplasm Resources Information Network |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110629213300/http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/html/genus.pl?8414 |archive-date=June 29, 2011 }}

|synonyms =

• Enaimon Raf. (1838)
• Leuranthus Knobl. (1934)
• Steganthus Knobl. (1934)
• Stereoderma Blume (1828)

|synonyms_ref = [https://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:328104-2 Olea L.] Plants of the World Online. Retrieved 28 November 2023.

}}

Olea ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|oʊ|l|i|ə}} {{respell|OH|lee|ə}}{{cite book|title=Sunset Western Garden Book|year=1995|pages=606–607}}) 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.[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. ]

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,[http://apps.kew.org/wcsp/namedetail.do?name_id=355112 Kew World Checklist of Selected Plant Families, Olea europaea L.][http://luirig.altervista.org/flora/taxa/index1.php?scientific-name=olea+europaea Altevista Flora Italiana, Oleastro, Olea europaea L. ] 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.{{citation needed|date=February 2022}}

Olea species are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including double-striped pug. {{citation needed|date=February 2022}}