Olea Africana

Scientific Name: Olea africana (wild olive)

Common Name:  Wild olive Tree

Family: Oleaceae (Olive family)

Names in other languages: Afrikaans (olyfboom,olienhout,swartolienhout); Amharic (weira); Arabic (zeitun bari); English (brown olive,wild olive,Indian olive,African wild olive,olive); German (Ölbaum); Hindi (bair banj,zaitoon,kan,kau,kahu,kao); Ndebele (umnquma); Shona (mupfungo); Somali (wera); Tigrigna (awliie); Trade name (kao,brown olive,kau); Zulu (umNqumo)

• General Information 

An ornamental tree with glossy grey-green leaves and dainty wine coloured to black fruits. This tree doesn’t get very tall but can form impressive trunks and can be quite long-lived. A very hardy tree that can withstand extreme coastal and windy conditions. The flowers are rather inconspicuous but you will be treated by their fragrant sweet smell in Winter and Spring seasons. If you’re looking for a feature tree that won’t get very big, but will live long, we can recommend the Wild Olive.

• Features of Olea africana that make it identifiable:  

Leaves: narrowly oblong-elliptic, 2-10 cm x 7-17 mm, grey-green to shiny dark green above, greyish or yellowish with a dense covering of silvery, golden or brown scales on the under surface; apex and base narrowly tapering, apex sharp tipped; margin entire, rolled under and curved back from the midrib, petiole slender, up to 10 mm long, so the leaves tend to droop. 

Flowers: greenish-white or cream, 6-10 mm long, sweetly scented, in loose axillary or occasionally terminal heads, 5-6 cm long. 

Fruit: ovoid, thinly fleshy, about 10 x 8 mm tapering to a sharp tip, dark brown or black when mature. 

Uses

Medicine: The Wandorobo and Kipsigis of Kenya use a root or bark decoction as a remedy for malaria

Non Medicinal: The main olive products are olive oil and edible olives. The fleshy, oil-bearing mesocarp used in commercial olive growing is absent in the much smaller fruits of O. europaea ssp. africana. The plants are much browsed on by livestock. Fuel: In Eritrea the villagers use wild olive extensively to provide fuelwood. Wood is hard and heavy, weighing approximately 1 140 kg/cubic m. Sapwood is light brown while the heartwood is red-brown to yellow, with dark figuring. The wood is fine-textured and finishes well, and is often used to make ornaments such as wall clocks and vases. Jewelry items such as beads, brooches and bangles are also made from wild olive wood. Although the tree does not produce sawable logs or branches, there are still several furnituremakers that, with great effort produce furniture from the limited quantities of timber.