Description
This much-branched evergreen tree varies in size from 2 to 15 m high. The leaves have an opposite, decussate arrangement, and are entire, 3 to 7 cm long and 0.8 to 2.5 cm wide; the apex is acute with a small hook or point, and the base is attenuate to cuneate. Leaf margins are entire and recurved, the upper surface is grey-green and glossy, and the lower surface has a dense covering of silvery, golden or brown scales. Domatia are absent; venation is obvious on the upper surface and obscure on the lower surface; the petiole is up to 10 mm long.
Fruit are borne in panicles or racmes 50 to 60mm long. The calyx is four-lobed, about 1mm long. The corolla is greenish-white or cream; the tube is 1 to 2mm long; lobes are about 3mm long and reflexed at the anthesis. The two stamens are fused near the top of the corolla tube, with bilobed stigma.
The globose to ellipsoid fruit is a drupe, 6mm in diameter and 15 to 25 mm long; it is fleshy, glaucous to a dull shine when ripe, and purple-black. The tree usually flowers in spring.
The wood is much-prized and durable, with a strong smell similar to bay rum, and is used for fine furniture and turnery.
Read more about this topic: Olea Europaea Subsp. Cuspidata
Famous quotes containing the word description:
“Do not require a description of the countries towards which you sail. The description does not describe them to you, and to- morrow you arrive there, and know them by inhabiting them.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“To give an accurate description of what has never occurred is not merely the proper occupation of the historian, but the inalienable privilege of any man of parts and culture.”
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)
“As they are not seen on their way down the streams, it is thought by fishermen that they never return, but waste away and die, clinging to rocks and stumps of trees for an indefinite period; a tragic feature in the scenery of the river bottoms worthy to be remembered with Shakespeare’s description of the sea-floor.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)