Plants trees or shrubs. Leaves opposite, simple. Inflorescences paniculate, with many flowers. Flowers less than 5 mm long; calyces 4-lobed, up to about 1 mm long; corollas cup-shaped, with a short tube, 4-lobed, lobes valvate; stamens 2, anthers introrse; ovaries subglobose, with 2 pendulous ovules per sell; styles short, stigmas more or less capitate. Fruits drupes wuth a hard endocarp, usually 1-seeded; seeds with endopserm.
Olea includes about 20 species and grows in tropical and warm temperate parts of the Old World. It includes the cultivated olive.
