Olive

Mediterranean · plants · food

Ancient evergreen tree. Olives come from a subtropical tree that stays green all year long and originally grew in Asia Minor, but now thrive throughout the Mediterranean region where it's warm and sunny.

Packed with precious oil. Olive fruit contains oil that's so important humans named the word 'oil' after it, using this golden liquid for cooking, lighting lamps, and even skincare for thousands of years.

A drupe like cherries. Botanically, an olive fruit is called a drupe, which means it has a hard pit inside just like cherries, peaches, and plums.

Traveled the globe. Modern olive trees come from the Near East, around the Aegean Sea, and near the Strait of Gibraltar, spreading throughout the world as people discovered how useful they were.

Related to fancy flowers. The olive tree is part of the Oleaceae family, which also includes beautiful plants like lilac, jasmine, forsythia, and even ash trees.