Olea ferruginea

Royle

Indian olive

Oleaceae Edible: Fruit, Fruit-oil, Leaves - tea 55 iNaturalist observations

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iNaturalist· cc-by

Description

A small evergreen tree. The bark is grey and strips off when old. The leaves are 5-10 cm long. They are reddish underneath and are pointed and leathery. The edges of the leaves curve back slightly. The flowers are small and whitish. They are in clusters 2-4 cm long in the axils of leaves. The fruit are black when ripe and 8 mm long. There is one seed inside. The fruit are oily.

Edible Uses

The wood is much-prized and durable, with a strong smell similar to bay rum, and is used for fine furniture and turnery. The wood is strong, hard, durable and heavy and resistant to termites and wood borers. The spindle wood is very light, while the heartwood is dark yellow to reddish brown. Olea europaea subsp. cuspidata produces edible fruit. They contain a biologically important oleanolic compound isolated from the chloroform extract (Anwar et al. 2013). The ripened fruits serve as a source of natural antioxidants due to their potential total phenolic compounds (Sharma et al. 2013). Traditionally in the Himalayas, the fruit of Olea europaea subsp. cuspidata has been used as medicine (Hassan et al. 2022). This species is cultivated as an ornamental tree for parks and gardens. It is also used for the production of table olives and oil. The sap of the fruit of this tree can also be used to make ink.

Traditional Uses

The fruit are edible raw, and also pickled and used as a source of oil. The leaves are used for tea.

This uses section is brief — help expand it

Distribution

A subtropical plant. It grows in the drier Western Himalayas. It grows up to 2,400 m altitude.

Where It Grows

Afghanistan, Asia, Himalayas, India, Nepal, Pakistan,

Production

In NW Pakistan fruit are harvested in September.

Other Information

It is a cultivated food plant.

Notes

There are over 40 Olea species. It is used as a rootstock to graft olive on to.

Synonyms

Olea cuspidata Wall. ex Don.

Also Known As

Bairbanj, Kahu, Kan, Kao, Kaphlainj, Khuna, Koo, Kowo, Shawan, Showan, Shwawan, Zaitun

References (14)

Abbasi, A. M., Khan, M & Zafar, M., 2013, Ethno-medicinal assessment of some selected wild edible fruits and vegetables of Lesser-Himalayas, Pakistan. Pak. J. Bot. 45 (SI):215-222
Ahmad, K. & Pieroni, A., 2016, Folk knowledge of wild food plants among the tribal communities of Thakht-e-Sulaiman Hills, North-West Pakistan. Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine, 12:17
Ambasta, S.P. (Ed.), 2000, The Useful Plants of India. CSIR India. p 407
Amin, M., et al, 2023, Edible wild plant species used by different linguistic groups of Kohistan Upper Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), Pakistan. Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine 19:6 p 11
Flora of Pakistan. www.eFloras.org

Show all 14 references

Ill. bot. Himal. Mts. 1(8):267. 1835; 2(7): t. 65, fig. 1. 1835
Khalid, N., et al, 2023, Wild food plants gathered by four cultural groups in North Waziristan, Pakistan. Genet Resour Crop Evol. 70:1243–1276
Khan, A. H., et al, 2023, Traditional foraging for ecological transition? Wild food ethnobotany among three ethnic groups in the highlands of the eastern Hindukush, North Pakistan. Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine 19:9
Joshi, S., Olea ferruginea Royle, Indian olive: an underutilised fruit tree crop of North-west Himalaya. Fruits, Vol. 67, p. 121-126
Polunin, O., & Stainton, A., 2006, Flowers of the Himalaya, Oxford India Paperbacks. p 259
Sahni, K.C., 2000, The Book of Indian Trees. Bombay Natural History Society. Oxford. p 128
Sher, H. et al, 2011, Ethnobotanical and Economic Observations of Some Plant Resources from the Northern Parts of Pakistan. Ethnobotany research & Applications 9:027-041
Singh, H.B., Arora R.K.,1978, Wild edible Plants of India. Indian Council of Agricultural Research, New Delhi. p 68 (As Olea cuspidata)
Upreti, K., et al, 2010, Diversity and Distribution of Wild Edible Fruit Plants of Uttarakhand. Bioversity Potentials of the Himalaya. p 174