The Oleaceae

The Olive Family

Forestiera pubescens spp.	Osmanthus fragrans spp.
Desert Olive	Sweet olive

The Oleaceae are herbs, shrubs, woody vines, or trees comprising about 30 genera and 600 species. They are found almost throughout the world, widely distributed in tropical to temperate regions, but particularly diverse in South-East Asia.

Click here for a distribution map of the Oleaceae in the U.S.A.

Vegetative Characters | Reproductive Characters | Diagnostic Characters | Economic Importance/Fun Facts | Evolutionary Adaptations and Relationships | Glossary of Terms | References and Links | Pictures

Vegetative Characters

• Leaves usually opposite, simple, pinnately compound or trifoliolate
• Leaves margins entire to serrate and abaxially punctate
• Stipules absent
• Pollination by bees, butterflies, and flies
• Inflorescences usually cymose or solitary
• Nectar disk or gland usually present

Reproductive Characters

• Flowers usually bisexual and actinomorphic
• Usually 4 connate sepals
• Petals usually 4 but sometimes more numerous, connate
• Stamens 2, filaments adnate to corolla
• Carpels 2, connate, superior ovary
• Stigma 2-lobed or capitate
• Fruit capsule, samara, berry, or drupe

Diagnostic Characters

• Usually 4-merous perianth with 2 stamen and two locular superior ovary
• Peltate trichomes
• Leaves abaxially punctate with secretory hairs

Economic Importance/Fun Facts

• Olea europaea are the commonly consumed species of olive
• Jasmine is used in perfume
• Fraxinus (ash) are used as timber tree

Evolutionary Adaptations and Relationships

• Considered monophyletic based on morphological synapomorphies and the presence of unsual crystalline inclusions in the nucleus of the mesophyll cells
• Family is phenetically quite divergent from most families of Lamiales and thus is sometimes placed in its own order, Oleales

Glossary of Terms

• Trifoliolate - of a compound leaf with three radial leaflets
• Abaxial - on the side of a lateral organ away from the axis or stem
• Punctate - covered with dots or pits
• Capitate - head-like, rounded
• Peltate - attached by the lower surface, remote from the margin
• Trichomes - an unbranched hair-like outgrowth of the epidermis, often glandular
• Mesophyll - the photosynthetic tissue of a green plant borne beneath the epidermis

References and Links

• Judd, W. S., C. S. Campbell, E. A. Kellogg, P. S. Stevens. 1999. Plant Systematics: a phylogenetic approach. Sinauer Associates, Inc. Sunderland, MA U.S.A.
• Walters, D.R. and D.J. Keil, 1996. Vasccular Plant Taxonomy, Fourth Edition. Kendall/Hunt Publishing Co. Dubuque, IA 52002
• Zomlefer, Wendy B., 1994. Guide to Flowering Plant Families. The University of North Carolina Press Chapel Hill, NC USA.
• http://biodiversity.uno.edu/delta/angio/www/oleaceae.htm
• http://www.botany.hawaii.edu/faculty/carr/ole.htm
• http://hcs.osu.edu/hcs300/olea.htm
• http://botit.botany.wisc.edu/courses/systematics/family_index/Family_Pages/Family_N_O/Oleaceae.html

Pictures

Jasminum multiflorum	Ligustrum japonicum notice 2 stamen

Fraxinus pennsylvanica	different stages of olives"

For questions or feedback, contact: Kristopher Blake Hamwi