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The olive or , known by the botanical name ''Olea europaea'', meaning "european olive", (syn. ''Olea sylvestris''〔http://www.theplantlist.org/tpl1.1/record/kew-355062〕) is a species of small tree in the family Oleaceae, found in much of Africa, the Mediterranean Basin from Portugal to the Levant, the Arabian Peninsula, and southern Asia as far east as China, as well as the Canary Islands, Mauritius and Réunion. The species is cultivated in many places and considered naturalized in Spain, Algeria, France (including Corsica), Greece, Turkey, Cyprus, Malta, Croatia, Slovenia, Albania, Crimea, Egypt, Israel, Iran, Iraq, Italy, Argentina, Jordan, Morocco, Palestine, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Lebanon, Java, Norfolk Island, California and Bermuda.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Kew World Checklist of Selected Plant Families, Olea europaea )〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】publisher=Biota of North America Program )〕 The olive's fruit, also called the olive, is of major agricultural importance in the Mediterranean region as the source of olive oil. The tree and its fruit give their name to the plant family, which also includes species such as lilacs, jasmine, ''Forsythia'' and the true ash trees (''Fraxinus''). The word derives from Latin ''ŏlīva'' ("olive fruit", "olive tree"; "olive oil" is ''ŏlĕum'')〔, 〕 which is cognate with the Greek (''elaía'', "olive fruit", "olive tree") and (''élaion'', "olive oil").〔, .〕〔In particular from a dialect that preserved digamma into historical times; thus * (OLD s.v. ''oliva'', Ernout & Meillet s.v. ''oleum'').〕 The oldest attested forms of the latter two words in Greek are respectively the Mycenaean , ''e-ra-wa'', and , ''e-ra-wo'' or , ''e-rai-wo'', written in the Linear B syllabic script.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Mycenaean (Linear b) – English Glossary )〕〔 (【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.palaeolexicon.com/ShowWord.aspx?Id=16728 ) 〕 The word "oil" in multiple languages ultimately derives from the name of this tree and its fruit. ==Description== The olive tree, ''Olea europaea'', is an evergreen tree or shrub native to the Mediterranean, Asia and Africa. It is short and squat, and rarely exceeds in height. The ''Pisciottana'', a unique variety comprising 40,000 trees found only in the area around Pisciotta in the Campania region of southern Italy often exceeds this, with correspondingly large trunk diameters. The silvery green leaves are oblong, measuring long and wide. The trunk is typically gnarled and twisted. The small white, feathery flowers, with ten-cleft calyx and corolla, two stamens and bifid stigma, are borne generally on the previous year's wood, in racemes springing from the axils of the leaves. The fruit is a small drupe long, thinner-fleshed and smaller in wild plants than in orchard cultivars. Olives are harvested in the green to purple stage. Canned black olives may contain chemicals (usually ferrous sulfate) that artificially turn them black. ''Olea europaea'' contains a seed commonly referred to in American English as a pit or a rock, and in British English as a stone. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Olive」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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