PlantFiles: Black Olive Tree, Oxhorn Bucida
Bucida buceras

I have one of these in my front yard. It's great for shade, bad for nesting birds that live over my driveway and leaving droppings on the vehicles. Be very careful of the thorns when they drop - they will go through your shoes as they are very sharp and are even more painful if you have bare feet.

After Hurricane Wilma every branch was broken and had to be cut back. It looked very sad, but after a year all of the branches had grown back beautifully. After 3 years the tree is just a big and full as it was when I first purchased my home pre-Wilma.

I lost four of these trees during Hurricane Wilma. Rather than loosing limbs, the entire tree toppled in each case, dammaging our home, and taking down other trees as it uprooted. This summer I am removing the one remaining tree as it stains my driveway, the sidewalk and some of my pottery on the side of the house. I also have sneezing fits each April when it begins to flower. A real headache, this one. The intense amount of leaf litter is not worth the canopy. I'd rather have a shade tree without the staining mess.

We had to remove all of our black olive trees because of their destructive roots. The roots spread very wide and have been damaging the sidewalk, pipes, and even the buildings by pushing up the foundation. The leaves are also very messy and they prevent grass & most other plants from growing nearby.

This introduced, non-native tree is ordinary and overused in the central and southern Florida landscape. It has been used for many years for building and housing and office projects and has long been planted as a superb shade tree in central and southern Florida. It can become somewhat invasive, and this tree drops way too many leaves that can create a lot of work to clean up. However, it would make a good and comfy leaf pile to jump in if piled up in a huge pile (no shortages of that)... then again, you would have to rake them up afterwards again. This tree can also be a problem planted close to driveways or sidewalks as it has an agressive root system. Also, this tree drops lots of tannic acid and should not be planted next to or over pools. The leaves stain sidewalks and driveways with brown tannic acid where they drop in profusion. Keep away from those areas. It is a good tree for shade, but I wouldn't recommend it these days as it is too common in south and central Florida (zones 9b to 11), and again, it is a very messy tree... if you plant it, be prepared to rake up lots and lots of leaves.

MORE FACTS - Grows well in zones 9b to 11. Also used in southern California.

This tree does not produce edible olives, but makes a wonderful shade tree. Does best in rich, moist, well-drained soil -- although can be grown in almost any type soil. Sometimes the top of the crown will flatten with age, and the tree grows horizontally. Small, yellow, odd smelling when in bloom -- very attractive to bees, produced in four-inch-long spikes during spring and summer.

Attractive to birds for nesting and cover, shade and specimen tree -- give plenty of room to grow. Does well in sea-side locations, heavy branches very wind tolerant.