FLORA OF THE VALLEY : OLIVE

In the late 19th Century, the San Fernando Valley community of Sylmar was known as “the world’s largest olive ranch.”

But, as more and more people moved west in the 1940s and 1950s, much of the land cleared by rancher George Porter during the 1880s to grow olives was subdivided and sold to small farmers and land speculators. Housing tracts soon replaced most of the orchards.

By the late 1970s, Sylmar was more famous as the epicenter of the tragic 1971 earthquake than for its olive groves. Today, the olive trees that remain can be seen in the yards of residents and in the mini-ranches that still exist in the community. Pictured here is an olive tree grove in Sylmar Park.

The common olive or European olive (Olea europaea) is popular as an ornamental street tree because of its attractive, willow-like, gray-green foliage. A native of the eastern Mediterranean region, it has been cultivated in other areas since prehistoric times.

An evergreen, the olive tree grows slowly, but becomes more picturesque with age as its short, stout trunk and branches become increasingly gnarled. The tree’s bark is brownish-gray and furrowed. Its crown is rounded or irregular in shape.

Mature olive trees reach up to 30 feet. Their trunks are a foot or more in diameter. Leaves are narrow and lance-shaped, from 1 1/2 to 3 inches long and less than an inch wide. Flowers bloom in spring in branched clusters at the bases of leaves. The blossoms are white and less than a half-inch long.

The familiar fruit of the olive tree is about an inch long, green when immature and shiny black when it ripens in the fall. The bitter fruit becomes edible after it is soaked in salt water or a lye solution, then washed well. Olive oil is obtained by crushing and pressing the mature fruit.