Olive

Olive

The olive is a special kind of tree called Olea europaea. It grows in warm places, especially around the Mediterranean Sea. Olives have been important for thousands of years.

Olives come from Asia Minor and are now found around the Mediterranean Basin. You can see wild olives in Africa and western Asia. Today, most olive trees grow near the Near East, the Aegean Sea, and close to the Strait of Gibraltar.

People use olives in many ways. We can eat the fruit, and we can make oil from it. This oil is used for cooking and other things like making soap. Olive wood is also used to make beautiful things. Olives have been special in many cultures. Their leaves and branches were used in ceremonies, like in the ancient Olympic games. The Greeks thought olive trees stood for peace, wealth, and wisdom.

Today, olives are grown in many places, such as Spain, Italy, and Greece. There are many kinds of olive trees. Some are grown for making oil, some we can eat, and some are just for decoration. Most olives are made into oil, and the rest are eaten as food, called "table olives".

The olive tree is an evergreen tree or shrub. It usually stands between 8 to 15 meters tall. Its leaves are silvery green and shaped like ovals. The tree makes tiny white flowers and small, round fruit that turns from green to purple when ready.

Olives have been very important in history, money, and culture around the Mediterranean Sea. People first started growing them a long time ago, between 6,000 and 4,000 BC in the Eastern Mediterranean. Olives helped many old cultures grow, like the Minoans, Myceneans, Greeks, and Romans.