Olive trees are weirdly immortal. The species (Olea europaea) has been cultivated around the Mediterranean for at least 6,000 years, and a handful of individual trees alive right now have been producing fruit since before the Roman Empire. Their twisted, gnarled trunks often go hollow with age but the tree keeps growing.
The “Olive Tree of Vouves” on the Greek island of Crete is one of the most famous old-timers. It’s estimated to be 2,000-3,000 years old, and it still gives a decent crop of olives each year. They’re pressed into oil and sold in tiny bottles to tourists.
Olive trees survive because they can regrow from the base. Even if a forest fire or a freezing winter kills the trunk, new shoots burst out from the roots and start over. So an “olive tree” can technically be older than its visible wood.
