Olive Tree Seeds (Olea europaea)

Eight thousand years of civilization in a single seed.

Olea europaea, the Common Olive, is the tree that shaped Mediterranean civilization more than any other single plant. Its oil fueled lamps, preserved food, anointed kings, and provided one of the most complete human foods available from any single plant source. Its cultivation drove the economies of ancient Greece, Rome, the Byzantine Empire, and the modern Mediterranean for over 8,000 years without interruption. It is also one of the most ornamentally beautiful trees available in warm climates, with silver-gray foliage that shimmers in Mediterranean light, a gnarled trunk that develops extraordinary character with age, and a presence in the landscape that no other evergreen tree matches for timeless elegance. If you are looking to buy Olive tree seeds or grow olives from seed, you are planting the tree that launched more ships, funded more wars, and fed more civilizations than almost any other plant in history.

• One of the most ancient and historically significant cultivated plants in human civilization, grown for over 8,000 years
• Silver-gray foliage shimmering in sun, among the most visually distinctive evergreen trees in warm-climate horticulture
• Gnarled, sculptural trunk developing extraordinary character in old specimens
• Produces fruit for oil and table olives, one of the most nutritionally complete tree crops available
• Extremely drought-tolerant and long-lived, with documented specimens over 2,000 years old still producing fruit

Things you probably did not know about the Olive Tree

Some olive trees currently fruiting in the Mediterranean are over 2,000 years old. Olive trees in Crete, Greece, and the Levant have been dated by radiocarbon analysis and historical records to well over 2,000 years. The Olive Tree of Vouves in Crete is estimated to be between 2,000 and 4,000 years old and still produces olives that are harvested and sold. It was producing fruit when Julius Caesar was alive and has continued without interruption since.

The olive branch became a universal symbol of peace because of a single story. The olive branch as a symbol of peace and reconciliation traces back to the story of Noah's dove returning with an olive branch to indicate that the floodwaters had receded and land was habitable again. This single narrative, preserved across Jewish, Christian, and Islamic traditions, gave the olive branch a symbolic weight that has persisted for millennia across every culture that encountered it.

Ancient Athens was named for Athena because of an olive tree. According to Greek mythology, the city that became Athens was awarded to the goddess Athena rather than Poseidon in a divine competition because Athena's gift of the olive tree was judged more useful to humanity than Poseidon's gift of saltwater spring. The olive groves on the slopes of the Acropolis were considered sacred to Athena and their destruction was a serious crime under Athenian law.

Olive oil has been found in containers sealed for 3,500 years. Archaeological digs at Bronze Age sites in the Aegean have found sealed amphorae containing olive oil that remained recognizable as oil after 3,500 years, a testament to the extraordinary stability of oleic acid. The trade in olive oil was one of the primary drivers of Bronze Age Mediterranean commerce and the amphorae used to transport it have been recovered from shipwrecks across the entire sea.

Growing Details

• Botanical Name: Olea europaea
• Stratification: Required, 60 to 90 days cold stratification or scarification to improve germination
• USDA Zones: 8 to 11
• Soil: Well-drained, tolerates poor, rocky, or alkaline soils, does not tolerate wet or waterlogged conditions
• Light: Full sun
• Height: 20 to 40 feet
• Spread: 15 to 30 feet
• Growth Rate: Slow to moderate, 1 to 2 feet per year

Plant it in full sun in the best-drained soil you have and expect to wait. Olive trees take time to develop their character. Then they keep it for centuries.