# Can anyone identify this tree ?



## Grizzly (May 9, 2005)

Can anyone identify this tree ? The fruit are hard and about olive size but the leaves and the form of the tree are nothing like olive and the fruit have a stalk.

The photo was taken at Pompeii in early May this year.

G


----------



## Zebedee (Oct 3, 2007)

Mrs Zeb will know.

I'll ask her if you don't get a reply soon Grizz.

Dave 

P.S. There are several varieties of olive - you sure it isn't one of them?


----------



## Penquin (Oct 15, 2007)

There is barely enough information in the pic to give it a go, but you may know more (I hope!)

The fruit certainly does look like an olive and the leaf is similar but as Zeb says there are different varieties of olive so....

So my initial answer would be off hand no, but you might try this link IF you know a little about it's growth pattern, eg height, stem shape and so on.

http://www.herbarium.rdg.ac.uk/mediplants/key.asp

It is from the University of Reading and deals with 230 different trees found around the Med.

The Kew Gardens key only deals with about 100 in their collection but can be found at;

http://apps.kew.org/trees/?page_id=17

Just check this picture;

http://www.athelasplants.co.uk/pics/Olive Tree1.jpg

Hope this helps...... Please let us know! Was it common around Pompei?

Dave


----------



## Grizzly (May 9, 2005)

Hi both and thanks...sorry for late reply; my " notify of response" function has gone to pot.

This was the only one on site ( Camping Spartacus). I thought (think ?) it's an olive but the leaves seem a lot broader and firmer than the usual olive leaves - more like a rhododendron or laurel leaf.

I've run it through the Med plants key ( thanks for that - an excellent link ) with no luck but, as you say, my photo does not give enough information. I've also gone through Google images but can't find it. I thought I had a photo of the whole tree but seem to have only an orange and a lemon instead !

Somewhere in the back of my mind, I can remember a bit from Carol Drinkwater's books on olive related matters about a Roman olive that does not need curing before eating.

Come home Mrs Zeb....!!

G


----------



## Zebedee (Oct 3, 2007)

Mrs Zeb thinks it might be a species of olive, but there isn't enough info from the photo. She would need to see the shape and structure of the tree/bush to have more idea.

And early May seems a bit soon for an olive to be turning colour and beginning to ripen.

Sorry (she says) - can't help any more.

Dave


----------



## Grizzly (May 9, 2005)

Thanks Mrs Zeb...I feared as much.

I should have asked the nice man on Reception but he'd already given me a mass of delicious cherry tomatoes, a loaf of bread straight out of the pizza oven and several home grown lemons and I felt a bit embarrassed. My Italian is not good enough to say that all I want is information...

Did I say it was a really friendly and convenient site- ?

G


----------

