Olive Tree Trivia Quiz Questions With Answers
The olive tree is a what?
A: Evergreen tree or shrub native to the
Mediterranean, Asia and Africa.
How many cultivars of the olive tree, (Olea europaea), are
there?
A: Hundreds.
What is an olive tree's fruit called?
A: Olives.
The olive is of major agricultural importance in what
region?
A: The Mediterranean region as the source of olive oil.
The olive tree is short and squat, and rarely exceeds how
many feet in height?
A: 26–49 feet.
The fruit is a small drupe that is about how long?
A: 0.39–0.98 inches long.
Olives are harvested when they are what
color?
A: In the green to purple stage.
Canned black olives may contain chemicals that do what?
A: That artificially turn them black.
Olives contain a seed commonly referred to in American
English as a what ?
A: Pit or a rock.
How many natural subspecies of Olea europaea trees are
there?
A: Six.
An olive's cultivar has a significant impact on its what?
A: Color, size, shape, and growth characteristics, as well as the qualities of
olive oil.
Olive cultivars may be used primarily for what?
A: Oil, eating, or both.
What are olives for consumption usually called?
A: Table olives.
The edible olive has been cultivated for at least how many
years?
A: 5,000 to 6,000 years.
Most of the ancient evidence of olive cultivation has been
found where?
A: In Syria, Palestine, and Crete.
Fossilized leaves of Olea were found in the palaeosols of
what volcanic
Greek island?
A: The island of Santorini.
Where were olives were grown commercially as far back as
3000 BC?
A: In Crete.
Olives may have been the source of the wealth of what
civilization?
A: The Minoan.
Olives are not native to where?
A: The Americas.
Spanish colonists brought olives to the New World where its
cultivation prospered in present-day what?
A: Peru and Chile.
In 1560, the first seedlings from Spain were planted in
Lima by whom?
A: Antonio de Rivera.
Olive tree cultivation spread along the valleys of South
America's what?
A: Dry Pacific coast where the climate was similar to the Mediterranean.
In California, when did the Spanish missionaries establish
the tree?
A: In the 18th century.
Where in California was it was first cultivated?
A: At Mission San Diego de Alcalá.
Orchards were started at other missions but in 1838 an
inspection found how many olive orchards in California?
A: Two.
In Japan, when was the first successful planting of olive
trees?
A: In 1908 on Shodo Island which became the cradle of olive cultivation.
What is the estimated number of olive trees in the world as
of 2005?
A: There are about 865 million.
Where are the vast majority of these trees found?
A: In Mediterranean countries.
Olive oil has long been considered what?
A: Sacred.
The olive branch was often a symbol of what?
A: Abundance, glory and peace.
Today, olive oil is still used in many what?
A: Religious ceremonies.
Over the years, the olive has been the symbol of what?
A: Peace, wisdom, glory, fertility, power and purity.
The olive was one of the main elements in what type of
ancient cuisine?
A: Israelite.
The olive tree is one of the first plants mentioned in the
what?
A: Hebrew Bible and in the
Christian Old Testament.
It was an olive leaf that a dove brought back to
Noah to
demonstrate what?
A: That the flood was over.
The ancient Greeks used to smear olive oil on their bodies
and hair as a matter of what?
A: Grooming and good health.