# Olive trees



## JOHNYOGA2 (Sep 30, 2008)

My property contains about 20 olive trees. These were not planted by me but are the very commom wild trees that are reasonably invasive in our area (West Central Indiana). They bloom with small white trumpet shaped flowers that I always figured were too long for use by my honeybees. This weekend, going around the property, BumbleBees were working all the olives. Three of the trees were covered (standing under the trees and shutting your eyes resulted in the trees humming) with honeybees. The other trees were untouched. I could not see any difference between the flowers of the trees. All the trees seemed to be in the same stage of blooming. I don't think there are seperate male female trees like there are in Holly's. Anybody know what's going on?


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## HONEYDEW (Mar 9, 2007)

duplicate


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## HONEYDEW (Mar 9, 2007)

The only olives I've seen come in cans...:lookout: also just noticed your name is John and your post count is 316


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## Walliebee (Nov 17, 2006)

Do you know another name for this tree? Olives do not grow in Indiana. Maybe it's Elaeagnus angustifolia which is Russian olive, but not related to olives. Go figure.

Only bees know why they work some and not others.


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## JOHNYOGA2 (Sep 30, 2008)

It is probably a variety called Autumn Olive. Very pretty, with the silver undersides, and aggressively invasive, but I was puzzled as to why the girls were only working 3 of 20 trees, and the trees they worked, they worked heavily. Yea, go figure. Darn things bloom when there only about 3 feet high.


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