RE: Olive understory

Here in Umbria the olive groves are semi cultivated so mainly grasses and bulbs but nect to terrace walls or other difficult places grow ginestra, wild asparagus, brambles and Fennel.
The olives were planted at 10 meter centers by the peasants who inter-croped vines and corn on a terrace. That kind of husbandry died when the last ox-drawn ploughing died.
Olives have been cultivated for over 3000 years so 'natural understory is difficult to find.
A grove that is abandoned reverts to first scrub the to forest, as is happening in parts of Italy.
 
Regards
George

 
From: a_m_leonardo@hotmail.com
To: medit-plants@ucdavis.edu; benwiswall@pacbell.net
Subject: RE: Olive understory
Date: Wed, 18 Feb 2009 18:43:00 +0000

Here in southern Portugal you can find some abandoned olive orchards. What you wil find growing under them wil be a mix of anuals and some perenials like Paeonia broteroi, Cistus albus, Scilla peruviana, and Muscari comosum

Alexandre Leonardo
Loulé
Portugal

> Date: Tue, 17 Feb 2009 14:31:32 -0800
> From: davidfeix@yahoo.com
> Subject: Re: Olive understory
> To: medit-plants@ucdavis.edu; benwiswall@pacbell.net
>
> It really will depend on the amount of shade below your Olives, and whether you thin them, or they are limbed up taller so that light can enter from the sides. I recall that in Crete there were lots of various Phlomis species, Myrtus communis, Euphorbia dendroideum to be seen amongst Olives. If you are not hung up on growing only Mediterranean species, why not consider other drought/shade tolerant things such as Crassula multicava, Acanthus mollis and A. spinossimus, Plectranthus neochilus or P. zuluensis, Dianella intermedia/revoluta 'Baby Bliss'/prunina 'Utopia', Agapanthus 'Peter Pan' or 'Queen Anne', Helleborus argutifolius and H. lividus and H. foetidus, Helichrysum petiolare cultivars, Euphorbia characias wulfenii, E. robbiae, etc. It would also probably be a good location for some of the more shade tolerant succulents such as Aeonium canariense, Sedum dendroideum, Dyckia brevifolia, or Echeveria elegans or E. imbricata. Ipheion uniflora would
> also naturalize and bloom quite readily below Olives.
>
> --- On Tue, 2/17/09, Ben Wiswall <benwiswall@pacbell.net> wrote:
>
> > From: Ben Wiswall <benwiswall@pacbell.net>
> > Subject: Olive understory
> > To: "medit plants forum" <medit-plants@ucdavis.edu>
> > Date: Tuesday, February 17, 2009, 10:56 AM
> > Hi All,
> > This question is directed mostly to members living near the
> > Mediterranean Sea.
> > About a year ago I asked what did well under Olive trees,
> > and had some helpful responses, but I'm still in a
> > quandary.
> >
> > I have a side yard planted with six olive trees and an
> > adjacent small live oak and a few melaleucas. Initially the
> > understory was a successful combination of Cistus ladanifer
> > and Lavandula stoechas 'Otto Quast', but as the
> > olives' shade increased, the shrubs declined. I've
> > been experimenting, with fragaria, iris, nerine,
> > arctostaphylos, carpenteria, ceanothus, but none of the
> > subjects have really taken with enthusiasm. Most are
> > living, but none are luxuriating. The trees are at that
> > adolescent stage, not quite shade-giving canopies, but more
> > than large shrubs. This year's experiments include
> > Salvia 'Mrs. Beard' and Salvia spathacea.
> >
> > It's been years and years since I visited the
> > Mediterranean, so here is my question to you: what NATURALLY
> > grows in an olive woods? Is the ground bare? Is there a
> > dense under-story of shrubs? Or is it low herbaceous
> > ground-covers? Knowing what occurs in nature would better
> > help me choose plants in my garden.
> >
> > Thanks for your help.
> > -Ben Artmentrout-Wiswall
> > Simi Valley, inland Ventura County
> > Southern California
> > (Probably more like Tripoli than Nice)
>

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