Portugal - Atlas do Ambiente II.7 - Carta de Distribuição de Oliveira e Zambujeiro

Summary

The actual Olive and Wild Olive Chart (scale 1:1 000 000) took into account data from the «Preliminary-Chart» of the Agricultural and Forestry Chart in the scale 1:250 000, published by the Agrarian Survey and Land-Use Planning Service, now a National Centre (CNROA). The mapping criteria adopted took into consideration the pure formations (olive groves and wild olive woods) and the scattered ones, reference being made to the minimum mapped areas. The morphological characters of the cultivated olive and the wild olive are briefly presented. Reference is made to the many cultivars of the cultivated olive and to their chorological distribution in the country, as well as to the wild olive. Under the phytosociological viewpoint the wild olive shrubby formations are included in the class Quercetea ilicis, both in the Quercetalia ilicis with the Oleo- -Quercetum rotundifoliae and Aro italici-Oleetum sylvestris associations, and the alliance Querco rotundifoliae-Oleion sylvestris with the association Oleo- -Quercetum suberis and as well the Asparago-Rhamnetalia alaterni with the Asparago-Rhamnetum oleoidis association, of which the wild olive is also a characteristic component. The emphasis is put on the econonvy of the valuable products of the cultivated olive, the olive and the olive oil, and a reference is made to the evolution of these productions in Portugal, on two periods of this century, and a new promise for the development of olive groves is hopefully stressed. Résumé La Ca