The olive tree (Olea europaea L.) is a fruit plant coming from the Middle-East, utilized since ancient times for eating. Its fruits, olives, are used for extracting oil and, to a minor extent, they’re eaten directly. Because of their bitter taste due to the polyphenols that they content, the use of olives as eating fruits requires specific treatments aimed at the “deamaricazione” (reduction of the bitter principles), accomplished through various methods.
The olive tree belongs to the family of Oleaceae. The plant starts to fructify around the 3rd or 4th year, begins its full productivity towards the 9th 10th year; it comes to full ripeness after 50 years. It’s a long-living plant: in favourable weather conditions an olive can live up to a thousand years. Its roots, most likely of the adventitious kind, are mostly on the surface and expanded, and never usually grow more than 60-100 cm (approx. from 2 to 3 feet) underground. [Wikipedia]

100-120 cm branched	110-130 cm bonsai	120-140 cm branched	18-20cm	20-30 cm	30-40 cm
40-50 cm	50-60 cm	60-70 cm	60-80 cm bonsai	70-80 cm	80-100 cm branched
90-110 cm bonsai	90-110 cm bonsai	large double bonsai	average double bonsai	small double bonsai	triple large bonsai
average double bonsai	small double bonsai	leccino 120-150 cm	leccino 150-200 cm

Click on the photos to enlarge image. From each enlarged photo it is possible to move with the NEXT and PREV arrows (respectively right and left on the top), to scroll through the picture album. With the X-CLOSE icon down on the right you can close the enlarged image.