Olea europaea

Olives are invariably grown in Mediterranean climates throughout the world as fruit trees and therefore they always have their branches cut off to keep them low so the fruit can be reached. I once came across a wood of 80ft tall grey trees swaying in the wind in a long abandoned ranch in California. I’m the tree man and everyone looked to me for identification of these things. I was embarrassed at my ignorance until I remembered that I’d been told that the ranch had been abandoned in the 1940s and what were they likely to grow on a ranch in California? Olives. Huge and completely unrecognisable. This tree – I think – has the remarkable distinction of being the only tree in the world that is only recognisable IF it’s had most of its branches cut off.