What Does an Olive Tree Look Like? A Full Breakdown of Its Morphological Features

The olive tree is a tree in the olive family (Burseraceae) and the genus Canarium, also called shanlan, bailan, honglan, qingzi, jianguo, and so on, so what does an olive tree look like?

1. What Does an Olive Tree Look Like?

The olive tree is a tree 10-25 m tall, with 3-6 pairs of leaflets, papery to leathery, lanceolate or elliptic (to ovate); its fruit is ovoid or spindle-shaped, nearly round in cross-section; it generally flowers from April to May, and the fruit ripens from October to December.

2. Growing Habits of the Olive Tree

The olive tree generally grows in ravine and hillside mixed woods below 1300 m in elevation, or is cultivated in gardens and beside villages.

The olive tree is mainly distributed in Fujian, Taiwan, China, Guangdong, Guangxi, Yunnan and other places, and is an excellent windbreak species and street tree.

If you want to plant an olive tree, it is generally planted in spring in March to April or in autumn in mid-to-late October; after planting, water frequently on sunny days to keep the soil moist until it survives; if a seedling dies, replant it promptly.

3. Pest and Disease Control of the Olive Tree

1. Diseases

The main olive diseases include anthracnose, sooty mold, and gummosis. Anthracnose mainly damages leaves and fruit. Leaf spots are semicircular or irregular, with a distinct boundary between diseased and healthy tissue; affected young fruit turns dark green and oil-soaked in appearance and drops easily.

2. Insect Pests

The main olive insect pests include the olive psyllid (Pseudophacopteron canarium), the bark miner, and leaf-rolling moths. The olive psyllid generally has 7-9 generations per year, overwintering as adults on the undersides of leaves, laying eggs on young buds, and damaging young leaves and buds.

There are 3 peak periods, corresponding to the growth periods of spring, summer and autumn shoots, namely mid-to-late April, mid-to-late June, and mid-to-late August. The integrated control measures are as follows:

In winter, prune out diseased and pest-infested branches, weak branches and water sprouts, clear fallen dead leaves and weeds from the orchard, and burn them in a concentrated pile; strengthen management to promote neat shoot sprouting, so as to break the psyllid's food chain and shorten the damage period; spray pesticide to protect shoots when the olive psyllid occurs in small numbers.