Pronunciation: XXX
Botanical name: Olea africana/europaea [Should this be listed as “Olea europaea ssp. africana”? Leave your remark in Comments below.]

Description: “a shrub or a small to medium sized tree 5-10 m in height, occasionally reaching 18 m. … O. europea ssp. africana is widely distributed in its native range of southern Africa occurring in a variety of habitats, usually near water, on stream banks, in riverine fringes, but also in open woodland, among rocks and in mountain ravines. It is resistant to both frost and drought. … The main olive products are olive oil and edible olives. The fleshy, oil-bearing mesocarp used in commercial olive growing is absent in the much smaller fruits of O. europaea ssp. africana. The plants are much browsed on by livestock.”

Uses: In the milk context, this is one of the most preferred lorien woods. [cover taste, and preservation qualities]

“Wood is hard and heavy, weighing approximately 1 140 kg/cubic m. Sapwood is light brown while the heartwood is red-brown to yellow, with dark figuring. The wood is fine-textured and finishes well, and is often used to make ornaments such as wall clocks and vases. Jewellery items such as beads, brooches and bangles are also made from wild olive wood. Although the tree does not produce sawable logs or branches, there are still several furniture-makers that, with great effort produce furniture from the limited quantities of timber.”

Source: Orwa C, Mutua A, Kindt R, Jamnadass R, Simons A. 2009. Agroforestree Database: a tree reference and selection guide version 4.0. World Agroforestry Centre, Kenya. https://www.worldagroforestry.org/output/agroforestree-database (accessed July 2024).

Return to Botanicals for Lmala Preparation.

This is the draft manuscript of the Samburu Milk Project, © 2024 William Rubel.

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Published by William Rubel

I am an author who writes about traditional food and foodways. My book, The Magic of Fire (2002) is about hearth cooking. I have written an introductory history of bread, Bread, a global history (2011) and am currently writing a history of bread for the University of California Press. Other areas of interest include wild mushrooms, and specifically the treatment of Amanita muscaria in the historic record. I also write about Early Modern British Gardens, and for a more general audience, I write for Mother Earth News on bread, gardening, and more. I have an ongoing research project into the smoke-cured fermented milk of the Kenyan Samburu tribe. I am a co-director of the Samburu Lowlands Research Station, Lengusaka. I am the founding editor (1972) of Stone Soup, the magazine of writing and art by young people.

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