The olive tree is a small evergreen tree that grows throughout the Mediterranean area and in parts of the world with a Mediterranean climate, including California, parts of South Africa and parts of Western and South Australia.
Olive trees are nowadays used to define the extent of the Mediterranean climate, which is characterised by relatively-hot dry summers and mild wet winters. Olive trees require 30 to 100 centimetres of rain falling mostly in autumn and winter. They do not survive if the ground freezes for more than a few days.
The wild olive tree is found in many parts of Africa and Asia, but its cultivation probably started thousands of years ago in the Eastern Mediterranean by the early Phoenicians.
Its cultivation was later introduced in other parts of the Mediterranean by the Phoenicians themselves, and eventually by the Greeks.
There is no record of when olive trees were first introduced in the Maltese islands. They were present during the Roman period when olive estates existed such as the one at San Pawl Milqi in Burmarrad.
They were here also during the Arab period, as can be confirmed by a number of Semitic place names such as Żebbuġ in both Malta and Gozo, Żejtun and Birżebuġa.
An olive tree takes 25 years to reach its full production, but after that it can continue producing olives for hundreds of years.
Trees over 1,000 years old are not uncommon. A number of olive trees in Malta are estimated to be between 600 and 1,000 years old.
Most of the trees that grew in the Maltese islands were cut down, either for firewood or more likely to make way for new crops such as wheat and cotton.
It is only recently that olive trees started to be planted again in the Maltese islands, and as many of them are still young it will be several years before they will reach full production.
Olives play an important role in both the landscape and diet of Mediterranean culture. The tree and its fruit and products feature in myths and legends of many Mediterranean cultures, but if such stories ever existed in Maltese culture they disappeared when the trees were cut down.
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