The Olive (Olea europaea) is an evergreen tree, which can be found around the Mediterranian Sea.
The olive is on of the oldest cultivated plants of mankind. There should be some trees that are hundred years old. Some even several thousand years.
The tree grows very slowly and is about 10-20 meters high.
The wood is dense, hard and durable. Especially whit old gnarled trees, the wood is very nice. Very often the trees have a so called interlocked grain. (Maybe the suffers from interlocked grain? I don't know! If you know, how to say it correctly, please let me know!). 
The wood is ver decorative and fine. It is also oilyand therefore it does not swell in water hardly noticable. The color of the wood aooears in countless colors. They range from yellowish to brown, sometimes there are also greens.
I've read that no other wood needs that long to dry than olive wood. The rason is the oil. It seems that olive woods tends to crack only in the first few years - 10 years or more, depending on the size.
