Native Olive

Olea paniculata, is our own Aussie native olive and edible raw.  excellent food for birds too. The tree grows up to be a tall, handsome rainforest cousin of the regular olive, giving you big, dense shade that's better than any beach umbrella.

It produces stacks of little blue-black berries that are a favourite snack for many birds.  So, you get a fast-growing, low-water tree, and the local wildlife gets a feed.  Very tough  and drought tolerant once settled in, which is what you want in a Perth garden.

​Soil: This plant is pretty adaptable, but it must have well-drained soil. It naturally grows near watercourses in rainforests but needs the drainage to thrive. It handles sandy or loamy soils well.

​pH: It's quite flexible, handling slightly acidic to neutral soils, with a preferred range of \text{pH 5.5 to 7.5}.

​Sunlight:

​Young Plants: Appreciates some protection (filtered sun) when young, as it's a 'pioneer species' that starts under a canopy.

​Established Trees: Prefers full sun to partial shade once established to get that fast growth happening.

​Water: It is moderately drought-tolerant once its roots have settled in. However, to get good, healthy, quick growth, it benefits from regular watering during dry spells, especially through hot Perth summers.

​Climate: It naturally occurs in subtropical rainforests but is also frost tolerant when mature. It thrives in climates with mild, wet winters and hot, dry summers (like a Mediterranean climate).

​Growth: It is a fast pioneer species and can grow into a tall, bushy tree (up to 30m, but more commonly 8-15m in cultivation).

​In short, give it a sunny spot, plenty of room, and make sure the soil doesn't hold water like a bathtub!

Native Olive, Olea paniculata, Aussie native tree, wildlife tree, shade tree Perth.