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Meet the Natives: Wild Olive
This week we are highlighting wild olive (Forestiera segregata) also known as Florida privet. If you are looking for a hardy low maintenance shrub that also supports our wildlife, look no further than the wild olive! Like the name suggests, wild olives belong to the olive family, Oleaceae! These medium to large sized shrubs are found in many coastal counties of Central and South Florida.
Wild olives grow native in coastal hammocks, scrubs, and thickets. Wild olive can tolerate a variety of soil and light conditions growing in full sun to part shade, and dry to moist well draining soils. They are drought tolerant once established, moderately salt spray tolerant, and can handle nutrient poor soils, making them a great addition to South Florida gardens!
They are relatively quick growing, and can get to about 5-15 feet tall and around 5-10 feet wide. They are also dioecious, meaning there are separate male and female trees. To get the shrub to produce fruits you need to have both a male and female specimen.
Wild olives have small, entire, skinny leaves, and are sometimes deciduous. They primarily bloom in the spring but can bloom year round, producing clusters of small green to yellow flowers. Oftentimes, the flowers appear on the stems before leaves emerge. Although small, these flowers attract a variety of native bees and butterflies.
Following their blooms, wild olive produces an abundance of small purple to dark blue fruits. These fruits provide an important food source for our native bird species as they are available in the early summer when many other species are not fruiting. Not only do wild olive provide an important food source, they also provide habitat. The dense foliage of this shrub provides an excellent source of shelter for both birds and other wildlife.
Incorporate wild olive into your garden as a resilient specimen tree, or use it as a border plant for hedges.
Sources:
Florida Native Plant Society:
https://www.fnps.org/plant/forestiera-segregata#gsc.tab=0
Florida Wildflower Foundation:
https://www.flawildflowers.org/flower-friday-forestiera-segregata
IRC: Institute for Regional Conservation:
https://regionalconservation.org/beta/nfyn/plantdetail.asp?tx=Foresegr
Atlas of Florida Plants: