History on this wonderful plant.
The whole Puglia, especially the Salento, are often remembered by passing tourists as well as by regular visitors for its natural beauty: the sea, the long beaches and olive groves.
Expanses of trunks warped by time, all the same and yet different in structure, shape, foliage now extensive, the olive trees stand out against the landscape of Salento, giving smells and colors typical and, by now, traditional.
The olive tree is, certainly, a symbol for excellence of Salento: it has been estimated about 50-60 million out throughout the country and many of them are secular.
Geological features, as well as the low need for care, make olive resist for years, decades, and even centuries, to the weather, the destructive force of the wind and torrential rain and the intolerable heat of the summers of Salento.
Those who watch them often remains enchanted and captivated into thinking that those trees probably could tell more stories and traditions of a book “culacchi”. But it is above their form that leaves open mouth, adults and children: the plant grows very slowly and over time the trunk is transformed, becoming more and more twisted, leaning on himself and, after a long time, it breaks apart in the middle. In this moment, it is becomes home to many breeds of animals, of vary size.
The bark takes on different shades of color depending on the age of the trunk, as well as the penetration of sunlight burning dry wood; where the sun beats, in fact, the wood tends to be wetter and sometimes to rot.
Although the characteristic appearance of the olive trees, especially those trees, is the trunk, do not forget that the true essential element lies in the big hair: myriads of little brown balls from which to produce the green gold of Salento, the olive oil, now exported and known worldwide.